Guild Wars 2 Tailor Guide - Get Dressed To Kill!

GW2 Tailor Guide

GW2 Tailoring is one of the armor crafting disciplines. It's responsible for creating gear that's used by the scholar professions. Necromancer, Mesmer, and Elementalist all wear light armor – robes made out of cloth and leather. Tailoring can also be used to create bags and runes. Getting a bag for additional inventory space might not be game-changing but it's a huge convenience. If you need some more general information about crafting and the role it plays in Guild Wars 2, make sure to take a look at our Crafting Guide. 

Armor Crafting in GW2

In general, Guild Wars 2 crafting is mostly an endgame thing. Theoretically, you could make yourself an armor set for the early game and use it as you level, but you can buy them really cheap, while the materials required to craft them are quite expensive. 

Unlike many other games, where crafting can be a good way of saving and making some money, even in the early game, crafting in GW2 is an investment that requires some initial capital. There's basically no way of profiting on armor or weapon crafting before leveling the discipline to at least 400. That's when you get access to master tier recipes.

There are two most important milestones in leveling a crafting discipline. Getting it to level 400 provides access to the first batch of endgame item choices. For armor crafters, it means Exotic armors. The second breakpoint is getting maxed out at crafting level 500. It's only available for weapon and armor crafters. At this point, you'll be able to craft basically the "best in the slot," Ascended gear. 

The only way of getting to these high levels is crafting a ton of different items, starting with low-level ones and getting higher as you go. That leads to an unusual situation, where the market is flooded by the cheap crafted items because everybody makes them level up their disciplines. To do that, they need materials, which creates a high demand for them in-game. All those factors combined, make materials relatively expensive and the low-level items basically worthless since they are just a byproduct of leveling.  

That being said, it's still definitely worth it to level some crafting classes. Armor crafters have a significant advantage over their weapon counterparts. A character profession can only use a single type of armor, regardless of the build they're running. You only need to develop a single armor crafter to be able to provide gear for your main character. At the same time, different builds often use different weapons, and the weapon-swapping mechanic is really important for many GW2 builds. That means that you most likely won't be able to cover every possibility with a single weapon crafting discipline.

Endgame Tailoring

As we already mentioned, the crafting disciplines only become useful after you advance them up to level 400. As for Tailoring, the most important Exotic set to craft is the Exalted armor. If you're playing an Elementalist, Mesmer or Necromancer (and you most likely are, if you're interested in Tailoring) you're going to use this armor for a really long time. At this time, you'll also get access to crafting runes – most notably, Superior Rune of the Scholar. It's a staple rune for numerous power DPS builds based on critical damage. 

While getting your Tailor to the max level 500, when they unlock the ability to craft Ascended items is not that hard - getting enough components and creating the set is quite a challenge. First of all, these products actually require recipes, which is not a standard practice in GW2. You're going to have to buy or find a special recipe item to learn how to craft them. Second of all, the whole process consists of multiple stages, and many of those are time-gated. You can only craft some of the most advanced materials once a day. Creating a full Ascended Illustrious Light Armor set from scratch takes 36 days! Even if you have all the basic ingredients. 

All that, combined with the relatively small difference in power level between Exotic and Ascended armor sets, makes many players stay with the Exotic tier for a long time. You can easily use it in the hardest dungeons, fractals and even some raids. While the Ascended armor sets can provide a little bit more extra stats, you can definitely keep up in most, if not all of the content, by simply using a good build and playing it properly.

GW2 Tailoring Leveling Guide

Leveling any of the crafting disciplines in Guild Wars 2 is a little bit of a gold sink. As we already discussed, you have to use perfectly fine materials to craft nearly worthless items just for the crafting exp. Most players completely gave up on looking for any value from that process and simply try to power level by using the cheapest routes possible. 

If you want to find the optimal one, you should use a proper calculator that you can find online. It's really simple, you just choose your discipline and follow the directions. It will cost a bit, but it's fast and simple. An example of a good leveling route looks like this.

Tailoring 1-400

This part is definitely necessary if you want to gain anything valuable from Tailoring. Armor and weapon crafting disciplines are usually a bit more expensive to level, due to the prices of materials. The process is quite cost-heavy. The expenses of getting all the mats necessary to get you to level 400 might even extend over 40 gold. At the same time, as we said, you're mostly crafting junk. Unfortunately, it means that the returns of it will be really low. The good news is - if you follow a predestined route, the process will be quick and easy. This is an exemplary list of materials necessary to hit Tailoring 400.

Materials to buy from an NPC Vendor

30x Spool of Wool Thread

32x Spool of Silk Thread

28x Spool of Jute Thread

84x Spool of Linen Thread

32x Spool of Cotton Thread

Materials to collect or buy from Trading Post

92x Jute Scrap

58x Thin Leather Section

128x Thick Leather Section

66x Coarse Leather Section

160x Wool Scrap

168x Cotton Scrap

318x Linen Scrap

249x Silk Scrap

107x Tiny Venom Sac

57x Full Venom Sac

57x Vial of Blood

57x Potent Venom Sac

83x Bone Shard

57x Small Fang

8x Glacial Core

18x Jute Sandal Sole

19x Jute Headpiece Strap

10x Jute Epaulet Padding

10x Jute Epaulet Panel

1x Wool Epaulet Panel

1x Cotton Helm Padding

1x Silk Helm Strap

1x Silk Helm Padding

19x Healing Jute Insignia

1x Hunter's Cotton Insignia

13x Vigorous Embroidered Cotton Insignia

13x Rampager's Embroidered Silk Insignia

1x Carrion Silk Insignia

1x Valkyrie Linen Insignia

8x Giver's Embroidered Linen Insignia 

10x Wool Patch

10x Jute Patch

320x Lucent Mote

8x Charm of Skill

If you have all of that, you should proceed with crafting all these items on the right level thresholds.

Level 1

46x Bolt of Jute

32x Pile of Lucent Crystal

9x Jute Sandal Upper

9x Malign Jute Insignia

Then combine Jute Sandal Upper, Malign Jute Insignia and 2x Jute Sandal Sole to discover Malign Embroidered Sandals and make 8 of them.

Level 25

19x Jute Headpiece Padding

Combine Jute Headpiece Strap, Jute Headpiece Padding, and Healing Jute Insignia to discover Healing Embroidered Mask and craft 18 of them.

Level 50

10x Malign Embroidered Jute Insignia

Combine Jute Epaulet Padding, Jute Epaulet Panel, and Malign Embroidered Jute Insignia to create Malign Embroidered Mantle and craft 9 of them.

Level 75

80x Bolt of Wool

29x Cured Thin Leather Square

29x Wool Gloves Panel

29x Wool Gloves Padding

1x Wool Epaulet Padding

1x Vigorous Wool Insignia

Then use the last three items to discover Vigorous Student Mantle.

Level 100

19x Honed Wool Insignia

Then discover Honed Student Gloves, by combining Wool Gloves Panel, Wool Gloves Padding and Honed Wool Insignia and make 18 of them.

Level 125

10x Vigorous Embroidered Wool Insignia

Discover Vigorous Student Gloves with Wool Gloves Panel, Wool Gloves, Padding, and Vigorous Embroidered Wool Insignia. Make 9 of them.

Level 150

84x Bolt of Cotton

33x Cured Coarse Leather Square

32x Cotton Glove Panel

32x Cotton Glove Padding

1x Cotton Helm Strap

Use Cotton Helm Strap, Cotton Helm Padding, and Hunter's Cotton Insignia to discover Hunter's Acolyte Mask.

Level 175

19x Strong Cotton Insignia

Discover Strong Acolyte Gloves, using Cotton Gloves Panel, Cotton Gloves Padding, and Strong Cotton Insignia

Level 200

Combine Cotton Gloves Panel, Cotton Gloves Padding, and Vigorous Embroidered Cotton Insignia to discover Vigorous Acolyte Gloves. Then make 12 of them.

Level 225

159x Bolt of Linen

28x Linen Pants Panel

28x Linen Pants Lining

Use the two last items and Valkyrie Linen Insignia to craft Valkyrie Winged Pants.

Level 250

19x Rampager's Linen Insignia

Use Linen Pants Panel, Linen Pants Lining and Rampager's Linen Insignia to craft Rampager's Winged Pants and make 18 of them.

Level 275

Discover Giver's Masquerade Leggings by combining Linen Pants Panel, Linen Pants Lining, and Giver's Embroidered Linen Insignia. 

Level 300

83x Bolt of Silk

32x Cured Thick Leather Square

32x Silk Helm Strap

32x Silk Helm Padding

Use the last two items and Carrion Silk Insignia to discover Carrion Feathered Headpiece

Level 325

19x Rampager's Silk Insignia

Discover Rampager's Feathered Headpiece by using Silk Helm Strap, Silk Helm Padding, and Rampager's Silk Insignia. Make 18 of them.

Level 350

12x Rampager's Feathered Headpiece

Level 375

Use Glacial Core, Charm of Skill, and Pile of Lucent Crystal to discover Major Rune of Water, then make seven more of them.

This route should take you straight to level 400. At this point, you should probably craft an Exotic light armor set, if you want to use one. You can also take a look at the runes that you can craft now. Some of them can be really useful and valuable.

Tailoring 400-500

If you're not going into the most demanding endgame content, you don't really have to rush level 500 Tailor. That being said, if you really want to get to the Ascended armor tier and some slightly more powerful Insignia, we have an example of the route that you could take. The good news is – the items you can craft after hitting 400 actually have a real value and return margins are much higher now. In these levels we will use the additional experience from the discovery bonus a bit more than earlier. 

Materials to buy from NPC vendor

145x Spool of Gossamer Thread

Materials to collect or buy from Trading Post

242x Bolt of Gossamer

1x Gossamer Epaulet Padding

2x Gossamer Epaulet Panel

1x Shaman's Intricate Gossamer Insignia

1x Cavalier's Intricate Gossamer Insignia

2x Rabid Intricate Gossamer Insignia

1x Magi's Intricate Gossamer Insignia

1x Soldier's Intricate Gossamer Insignia

44x Dire Intricate Gossamer Insignia

Level 400

48x Gossamer Pants Panel

48x Gossamer Pants Lining

1x Gossamer Epaulet Panel

Then Discover Rabid Exalted Mantle by combining Gossamer Epaulet Padding, Gossamer Epaulet Panel, and Rabid Intricate Gossamer Insignia. Also use Gossamer Pants Panel, Gossamer Pants Lining and Dire Intricate Gossamer Insignia to discover Dire Exalted Pants.

Level 425

There are five discoveries in this tier.

Rabid Exalted Pants, out of Gossamer Pants Panel, Gossamer Pants Lining and Rabid Intricate Gossamer Insignia

Magi's Exalted Pants, out of Gossamer Pants Panel, Gossamer Pants Lining and Magi's Intricate Gossamer Insignia

Soldier's Exalted Pants, out of Gossamer Pants Panel, Gossamer Pants Lining and Soldier's Intricate Gossamer Insignia

Shaman's Exalted Pants, out of Gossamer Pants Panel, Gossamer Pants Lining and Shaman's Intricate Gossamer Insignia

Cavalier's Exalted Pants, out of Gossamer Pants Panel, Gossamer Pants Lining and Cavalier's Intricate Gossamer Insignia

Then craft 5x Dire Exalted Pants.

Level 450

18x Dire Exalted Pants

Level 475

19x Dire Exalted Pants

Discover Dire Exalted Mantle by combining Gossamer Epaulet Padding, Gossamer Epaulet Panel, and Dire Intricate Gossamer Insignia.

GW2 tailor guide

At this point, you should be a level 500 Tailor. Getting to that point enables you to craft the Ascended Light Illustrious Armor Set. Better start instantly, since as we mentioned, it's going to take a while. Without buying the advanced materials from other players, the whole process takes 36 days due to time-gating. That's also the reason why crafting Ascended armor components might be a decent method of making money in Guild Wars 2. The restrictions keep supply relatively low which in turn increases the demand. The components can be sold for decent prices quite quickly and easily.

Guild Wars 2

While crafting might not be the most advanced and crucial aspect of Guild Wars 2, the game offers a variety of content and activities to its players. This ArenaNet MMORPG won over numerous fans with beautiful graphics and great world-building. The Living World feature places great emphasis on the storytelling aspect of the game that has multiple memorable side characters.

Gameplay-wise there's also a lot to choose from. The first journey through the main campaign and leveling from 1 to 80 can be a blast. Players can experiment with their builds, at least in the open world and dungeons. The PvE endgame consists of various challenges, like fractals and raid bosses.

Players can choose out of nine professions: Warrior, Guardian, Revenant, Ranger, Thief, Engineer, Elementalist, Necromancer and Mesmer. Furthermore, each character can develop two crafting disciplines. Besides Tailoring, they are Armorsmith, Leatherworker, Weaponsmith, Huntsman, Artificer, Jeweler, Chef (Cooking) and Scribe. 

PvP has also been heavily improved since the game's beginning. While there's no player-versus-player in the open world, there are multiple interesting game modes designed for this exact reason. Especially the epic mass combat World versus World mode is extremely popular among the GW2 gamers community.

It's a unique game that's definitely worth giving a shot. If you're looking for some kind of an additional advantage, check out the Guild Wars 2 offers at MMOAuctions! You can also just follow our blog to read more guides and articles about GW2 and other popular online games.