GW2 Huntsman Guide - Bows, Rifles and Much More!

Guild Wars 2 Huntsman Guide

As we continue our series of GW2 crafting discipline guides, it’s time to discuss Huntsman. It’s one of the three weapon crafting classes. This one is focused mainly on non-magical ranged weapons. To be precise, Huntsmen can produce longbows, short bows, rifles, pistols, torches, and warhorns.

To be honest, it’s somewhat of a niche discipline, because most of the DPS builds tend to prioritize melee weapons and supports usually use staves. That being said, there are quite a few builds for endgame content and tons of open-world setups that use some of the Huntsman’s weapons. Especially torch is a popular off-hand for builds focused on condition damage. You can also find a decent DPS build with a rifle, short bow, or pistol. Longbow, of course, remains the best tool to pull mobs, but it also can be used as the main weapon, especially in the open world.

The equipment market in GW2

Items market in Guild Wars 2 is very specific. As the game keeps developing over the years, the importance of early stages becomes lesser and lesser. Advancement through leveling alongside pushing through the main campaign is now something that basically only new players can experience.

If you’re a veteran player that’s creating a new character, you’re probably going to use a Tome of Knowledge for instant level 80. ArenaNet provides plenty of options for players to progress extremely quickly and painlessly. 

If almost nobody plays the early game, the low-level gear becomes useless trash. At the same time, to level a crafting discipline, you’re going to have to create a lot of low-level items. Tons of them are being produced because players want to have access to valuable endgame crafting. 

All those factors combined make it impossible to earn any gold from crafting before getting your discipline to level 400. There’s no economy in the early game. Everything is focused on endgame gear and cosmetics. 

The leveling process is a bit of a gold sink. You have to collect or buy a lot of materials (and they’re not that cheap) only to waste them on producing useless items for crafting experience. Theoretically, you could level up your crafting discipline alongside the main profession and craft new items as you loot some of the materials. You could even craft yourself a new weapon every few levels, gradually increasing your gear power as you progress through the game. 

The thing is, nobody is doing that anymore. Players’ community pretty much agreed that the best way of leveling crafters is biting the bullet and just throwing away the gold. At least it doesn’t take a lot of time. This all makes crafting a bit of a luxury investment that requires significant initial capital to start making a profit. The burden of leveling crafting disciplines might be a bit too heavy for players who don't have a hefty amount of gold stored in the bank.

Endgame Huntsman Items

You may wonder whether it’s even worth to throw away all those resources on leveling a crafting discipline. After all, crafting is not the most important aspect of Guild Wars 2. It’s actually kind of true, but being able to produce endgame equipment and its components is really valuable. 

The first important milestone for equipment crafting is level 400. This is when you can start creating the Exotic tier of items. While it’s not by any means the Best in Slot weapon and armor tier, it’s widely perceived as good enough for most of the GW2 endgame content, most importantly fractals and even some of the raids. At level 400, Huntsmen can craft Pearl and Primordus weapons. 

The other, maybe even more important, category of items that you can produce as a level 400+ Huntsman are superior sigils. They are the special upgrade components that can be used to empower weapons with various bonus effects. 

Superior is the highest tier of sigils in the game, and you don’t get access to any more post level 400. Some of them are available to all the weapon crafting classes, but there are a few interesting Huntsman exclusives. Most notably, Superior Sigil of Bursting is a great choice for most builds based on condition damage, as it amplifies it by 5%. Definitely make yourself one of those, if you’re sometimes role-playing as the condi DPS. 

The second important breakpoint is getting to the crafting level 500. It’s only available for the armor and weapon crafting classes, and it unlocks the possibility to create items from the Ascended tier. While they’re not exactly the most prestigious Legendary weapons, they are 100% equivalent in stats. 

That means that with a level 500 crafter, all the necessary materials and recipes as well as a couple of days (it’s a time-gated process that consists of multiple stages) you can make yourself basically a Best in Slot weapon. That being said, if you’re not looking at doing raids and the most difficult fractals, there’s virtually no reason to level to 500 and use your time and resources on making an Ascended weapon. A properly chosen Exotic one with the right sigil will definitely last you for a long time.

Huntsman leveling guide

As we already warned you, leveling a crafting discipline is a thankless task – at least for some time. You have to be prepared to spend maybe even over 40 and get next to no return for it. You’re not buying materials to make good items, crafting experience that you get as the byproduct is the most valuable asset here. 

If you don’t have enough GW2 gold to go through the whole leveling process (at least to 400) in one go, we would recommend waiting. Finding an efficient route and following it is by far the best and most convenient way of leveling a crafting class. You definitely should just buy all the materials and get through the process in one gaming session.

Huntsman 1-400

This is the most important part. You get to 400 – you can start making things that actually have value. Before that point, the equipment crafting disciplines are basically useless. Unfortunately, that also means that this is the stage that consumes more gold and gives back smaller returns. That being said, remember about your end-goal and let’s get to crafting. We’re going to show you an example of a  fast and relatively cheap crafting route that can take you straight from the beginning to level 400. First, let’s consider the necessary mats and recipes that you need to buy, then we're going to go straight into the crafting process. The price of materials can vary in time, but always try to use the cheapest route that's available.  

Items to buy from NPC Vendor

68x Jug of Water

6x Lump of tin

80x Lump of Coal

54x Lump of Primordium

Recipe: Rampager’s Mithril Imbued Inscription

Recipe: Carrion Mithril Imbued Inscription 

NOTE - when buying a recipe make sure that it's for Mithril Imbued Inscription and not Mithril Plated Insciption. Many players make that mistake. 

Materials to collect or buy from Trading Post

60x Copper Ore

462x Iron Ore

140x Mithril Ore

108x Platinum Ore

186x Elder Wood Log

174x Green Wood Log

148x Soft Wood Log

162x Hard Wood Log

240x Seasoned Wood Log

8x Pile of Glittering Dust

4x Pile of Shimmering Dust

8x Pile of Luminous Dust

8x Pile of Incandescent Dust

80x Tiny Venom Sac

87x Potent Venom Sac

30x Large Bone

57x Tiny Claw

80x Small Claw

16x Pile of Filthy Essence

1x Pile of Vile Essence

8x Corrupted Core

29x Bronze Warhorn Mouthpiece

10x Bronze Plated Dowel

10x Iron Plated Dowel

19x Elder Wood Dowel

19x Green Wood Dowel

27x Strong Seasoned Inscription

27x Honed Soft Inscription

13x Hunter’s Steel Plated Inscription

27x Rampager’s Hard Inscription

9x Symbol of Control

850x Lucent Mole

8x Symbol of Pain

Level 1

85x Pile of Lucent Crystal

56x Green Wood Plank

30x Bronze Ingot (one crafting process makes 5 of them, so do it 6 times)

29x Bronze Horn

Use 3x Jug of Water and 4x Pile of Glittering Dust to discover Apprentice Maintenance Oil. Make one more.

Level 25

19x Precise Green Inscription

Combine it with Bronze Warhorn Mouthpiece and Bronze Horn to discover Precise Green Wood Warhorn. Then make 18 more of them.

Level 50

10x Malign Bronze Plated Inscription

Use it alongside Warhorn Mouthpiece and Bronze Horn to discover Malign Green Wood Warhorn. Craft 9 more.

Level 75

74x Iron Ingot

74x Soft Wood Plank

37x Iron Warhorn Mouthpiece

37x Iron Horn

Discover Journeyman Maintenance Oil by combining 4x Pile of Shimmering dust and 6x Jug of Water

Level 100

Use Iron Warhorn Mouthpiece, Iron Horn and Honed Soft Inscription to discover Honed Soft Wood Warhorn. Then produce 26 more of them.

Level 125

10x Hunter’s Iron Plated Inscription

Combine it with Warhorn Mouthpiece and Iron Horn to discover Hunter’s Soft Wood Warhorn. Make nine more.

Level 150

80x Steel Ingot

80x Seasoned Wood Plank

40x Steel Warhorn Mouthpiece

40x Steel Horn

Level 175

Discover Strong Seasoned Wood Warhorn with Steel Warhorn Mouthpiece, Steel Horn and Strong Seasoned Inscription. Produce 26 more of them.

Level 200

Use Steel Warhorn Mouthpiece, Steel Horn and Hunter’s Steel Plated Inscription to discover Hunter’s Seasoned Wood Warhorn, make 12 more.

Level 225

54x Darksteel Ingot

54x Hard Wood Plank

27x Darksteel Warhorn Mouthpiece

27x Darksteel Horn

Discover Artisan Maintenance Oil by combining 4x Pile of Luminous Dust and 12x Jug of Water. Make one more.

Level 250

Use Darksteel Warhorn Mouthpiece, Darksteel Horn and Rampager’s Hard Inscription to discover Rampager’s Hard Wood Warhorn

Level 275

Discover Major Sigil of Celerity with 1x Symbol of Control, 2x Pile of Filthy Essence and 5x Pile of Lucent Crystal. Make seven more of those sigils.

Level 300

70x Mithril Ingot

62x Elder Wood Plank

21x Elder Torch Handle

21x Mithril Torch Head

2x Mithril Warhorn Mouthpiece

2x Mithril Horn

Discover Quality Maintenance Oil by combining 4x Pile of Incandescent Dust and 15x Jug of Water. Craft one more.

Level 325

19x Rampager’s Elder Inscription

Use it alongside Elder Torch Handle and Mithril Torch Head to discover Rampager’s Elder Wood Torch. Then make 18 more of them.

Level 350

8x Mithril Plated Dowel

Discover Major Sigil of Icebrood Slaying with 1x Corrupted Core, 1x Symbol of Pain and 5x Pile of Lucent Crystal. Craft 7 more of those sigils.

Level 375

2x Rampager’s Mithril Imbued Inscription

2x Carrion Mithril Imbued Inscription

Discover Carrion Krait Whelk with Mithril Warhorn Mouthpiece, Mithril Horn, and Carrion Mithril Imbued Inscription. Use identical recipe, but with Rampager’s Mithril Imbued Inscription to discover Rampager’s Krait Whelk.

Then do the same with torches. Combine Elder Torch Handle, Mithril Torch Head and Carrion Mithril Imbued Inscription to discover Carrion Krait Brazier. Then use the same recipe with another inscription to discover Rampager’s Krait Brazier.

Use 1x Pile of Vile Essence, 1x Symbol of Control and 5x Pile of Lucent Crystal to discover Major Sigil of Celerity.

If you followed this route precisely, you should be level 400 Huntsman by now. If you need some Exotic weapons, now it’s time to make them. You should also definitely take a look at the sigils, and you’ll definitely find some options that can empower your build. On the other hand, if your aim is to get the Ascended weapons as soon as possible, you can simply continue the leveling process.

Huntsman 400-500

Just a reminder, if you’re not going to attempt the most difficult fractals and raids, there’s no reason to instantly rush to crafting level 500. You’ll probably be going to want to get it eventually, but if you’re not that deep into endgame content yet, there probably are better things to spend your gold on. Since this is basically the endgame crafting, you will get some return here, but with unlucky timing, this stage can cost you even more than going from 1 to 400. This is an example of a crafting item list that can take you from 400 to 500.

Materials to buy from NPC Vendor

180x Jug of Water

Items to collect or buy from Trading Post

65x Orichalcum Ingot

71x Ancient Wood Plank

27x Pile of Crystalline Dust

140x Glob of Ectoplasm

1x Ancient Rifle Stock

1x Ancient Harpoon

5x Shaman’s Orichalcum Imbued Inscription

5x Cavalier’s Orichalcum Imbued Inscription

5x Rabid Orichalcum Imbued Inscription

5x Magi’s Orichalcum Imbued Inscription

5x Dire Orichalcum Imbued Inscription

3x Soldier’s Orichalcum Imbued Inscription

Level 400

This is the preparation stage when we’re making all the components that will be needed for future discoveries. We’re not going to break down all of them, just use the components listed here, combined with the right inscription and you’ll be good to go. It's the best way of leveling here, because of the extra experience granted by the discovery bonus.

9x Ancient Rifle Stock

6x Orichalcum Warhorn Mouthpiece

6x Orichalcum Horn

6x Ancient Torch Handle

6x Orichalcum Torch Head

6x Orichalcum Pistol Barrel

6x Ancient Pistol Frame

5x Orichalcum Rifle Barrel

4x Ancient Harpoon

Discover Master Maintenance Oil with 3x Pile of Crystalline Dust and 20x Jug of Water. Make seven more.

Level 425

1x Master Maintenance Oil

There are eight discoveries in this tier:

Rabid Pearl Siren

Dire Pearl Siren

Magi’s Pearl Siren

Dire Pearl Brazier

Rabid Pearl Brazier

Magi’s Pearl Brazier

Rabid Pearl Handcannon

Dire Pearl Handcannon

Level 450

You’re going to discover nine more weapon recipes now:

Shaman’s Pearl Siren

Shaman’s Pearl Brazier

Magi’s Pearl Handcannon

Shaman’s Pearl Handcannon

Dire Pearl Blunderbuss

Rabid Pearl Blunderbuss

Magi’s Pearl Blunderbuss

Shaman’s Pearl Blunderbuss

Rabid Pearl Speargun

Level 475

Finally, ten more here and we’re done!

Soldier’s Pearl Siren

Cavalier’s Pearl Siren

Soldier’s Pearl Brazier

Cavalier’s Pearl Brazier

Soldier’s Pearl Handcannon

Cavalier’s Pearl Handcannon

Magi’s Pearl Speargun

Dire Pearl Speargun

Shaman’s Pearl Speargun

Cavalier’s Pearl Blunderbuss

GW2 Huntsman Guide

After all this crafting, you should be a maxed-out Huntsman. It’s the perfect moment to start crafting Ascended weapons or at least their parts. Recipes for components also are time-gated, which significantly slows down the supply, keeping the demand on a relatively high level. Still, crafting is not the most lucrative activity in Guild Wars 2, it definitely has its place, but you should be able to rather easily make more gold in dungeons and fractals.

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Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2 is an MMORPG developed by ArenaNet. It offers its players a choice out of nine main professions to play. There are tons of absorbing PvE endgame activities like fractals and raids. PvP is also really well-crafted, especially if we're talking about the epic World versus World (WvW) battles.  

Besides the main profession, every character can level at least two crafting disciplines. Besides Huntsman, the remaining ones are Weaponsmith, Artificer, Armorsmith, Leatherworker, Tailor, Jeweler,   and Scribe.