Crafting in Guild Wars 2 UPDATED

There are eight crafting professions in Guild Wars 2 (and 400 skills levels!).  You can learn all the crafting professions, but can only have two disciplines active on a character at one time.  You can gather materials for crafting by purchasing items, looting defeated foes' bodies, gathering certain raw materials, and salvaging materials after destroying items using a salvage kit.  All this is covered in the GW2 wiki.  Yes, it's complicated.  This is the very best guide I've found.
http://gaiscioch.com/tavern/guildwars_crafting/post_35198.html

Here is what the official wiki says about crafting.  The links are very useful for research.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crafting

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crafting_material

This summarizes crafting and has explanations of how professions work crafting items.
http://www.ign.com/wikis/guild-wars-2/Crafting

Here is a crafting orientation video for beginners.  (based on the beta)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFU_b4e2bxU

A more intermediate crafting video with an emphasis on gathering and storage. (based on the beta)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry3Ddw6Gqmo&feature=channel&list=UL

Cooking is a little different so here's a video that covers just cooking.  (based on the beta)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpPWp1Yh_30&feature=channel&list=UL

Psynister has analyzed the gem store. You can read all about it and see the organizational charts here.  Thanks, Psyn!
http://psynister.wordpress.com/2012/08/10/analyzing-the-gem-store/

He's also done a review of the game.
http://psynister.wordpress.com/2012/08/28/guild-wars-2-review-take-2/

UPDATE:  Recipes are color coded in the production tab of your crafting UI.  I am quoting the Production section in the link below as follows:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crafting

"The production tab shows all available recipes. The color of a recipe's name indicates how close the recipe is to your current discipline level. The colors are the same as for item quality, progressing from gold for recipes near your current level to green to dark blue to light blue to white to gray for recipes that no longer grant any crafting experience.

Red recipes appear when you are within five levels of the next 25-level interval, at which point they will automatically unlock.

The number after the recipe name indicates how many items you can craft using that recipe, based on the contents your inventory and collections."

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MUST READ Summaries of General and Class Changes UPDATED

The Pot has been working hard to provide general and class changes we will see in Patch 4.0.1 once the durn thing works.  Here are the general overall changes, including a link to a gem conversion chart.
http://www.mmomeltingpot.com/2010/10/one-stop-shop-for-your-general-knowledge-in-patch-4-0-1/

And here are class specific changes.
http://www.mmomeltingpot.com/2010/10/one-stop-shop-for-your-classrace-in-wow-patch-4-0-1/

Here's a list of 4.0.1 class survival guides compiled by Jaded Alt.
http://www.jadedalt.com/2010/10/10/4-0-1-survival-class-guides/

UPDATE: I am putting class specific information into the Class Tabs above.  Look for listings in blue.  Blue equals Patch 4.0.1 or Cataclysm info.  I'll try to spell out what is in each link and eventually will remove all pre-Patch 4.0.1 information.  But that has to wait.  I'm concentrating on adding new information as I find it right now, not removing outdated info.

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Glyphs and Gems (and Professions) in Patch 4.0.1

WOW Insider summarizes how glyphs and gems (and professions) will change when Patch 4.0.1 hits. I've discovered the rumor that this major pre-Cataclysm patch will hit tomorrow originated with MMO Champion.  They'll usually pretty accurate so get ready for chaos.  By the way, there's going to be extended maintenance on October 12.  It'll start at 12 A.M. and last until 12 P.M. PDT.  Sounds like MMO Champion is right.
http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/10/11/insider-trader-preparing-for-patch-4-0-1/

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The Elitest Armory is Dead UPDATED

The Solo MMO Player is sad to say that the Elitest Armory is dead.  With Cataclysm coming up, everything would have to be redone and Shadow doesn't plan to play the expansion.
http://elitistarmory.com/

It was a terrific site which the Solo MMO Player hates to say goodbye to.  I'l leave the link in Favorite Links for a while in case someone new takes on the responsibility of rebuilding this for Cataclysm.

UPDATE:  This site is supposed to do basically the same thing but the Solo MMO Player says it is clunkier to use.
http://www.warcrafter.net/

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Hunter Gems and Enchants

Garwulf has posted two articles, one on hunter gems and the other on enchants for hunters.  The enchants link is first.
http://huntsmanslodge.com/garsnotes-hunter-enchants

http://huntsmanslodge.com/garsnotes-hunter-gems

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Gems and Enchants for Your Paladin

A two part article about gemming and enchanting your pally by a retribution paladin.
http://blaquespell.com/general/making-your-stuff-sparkle/

http://blaquespell.com/general/making-your-stuff-sparkle-literally-part-2/

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Moonkins and Gems

Help selecting gems for your little moonkin from StrayEgg, courtesy of the Druid Reliquary.
http://druidreliquary.blogspot.com/2010/03/moonkin-gem-selection.html

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Metagems for Healers

A thorough discussion of the options including a theorycrafting analysis and why some are better than others.
http://moarhps.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/healer-metagems-lets-be-frank/

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The Feral Druid Bear Guide (Patch 3.3)

WOW Insider continues its series on current class information with a profile of the feral druid bears.  This covers the advantages and disadvantages of playing a feral bear, has information on talents and stats, heirlooms, gear, enchants, and glyphs you need as a high level bear, and covers spell rotations/casting sequences.
http://www.wow.com/2010/02/17/shifting-perspectives-bear-101/#continued

There's a link to a video that shows the feral druid bear casting sequence in action.  I've included this below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HciHmfncLc0

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The Unholy Death Knights Spec

All about playing an unholy DK, from stats and talents and gems to spell rotations.  I've added this long, thorough article to the Death Knight tab just under the header above.
http://www.wow.com/2010/02/16/lichborne-unholy-dps-101/

Skeleton Jack's take on the unholy death knight spec, with an update.
http://www.skeletonjack.com/2010/04/20/skeleton-jacks-3-3-3-unholy-spec/

http://www.skeletonjack.com/2010/04/21/sjs-3-3-3-unholy-spec-discussion/

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Gemming Your Paladin

Honorshammer talks about the best way to gem your paladin.
http://ferarro.blogspot.com/2010/02/seeing-red-gemming-those-slots.html

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Hunter Gems

What gems to look for, especially if you are running Icecrown Citadel.
http://www.thehuntersmark.net/2010/01/25/a-refresher-on-hunter-gems/

http://www.wow.com/2010/05/06/scattered-shots-hunter-gems/

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Mage Raiding Builds for Patch 3.3 (With PvP)

Specs and talents to help raiding mages.
http://doyoumindifiplay.blogspot.com/2009/11/raiding-builds-part-1.html

Talents and glyphs (and changes on arcane mages made in part one)
http://doyoumindifiplay.blogspot.com/2010/01/raiding-builds-part-2.html

Gemming
http://doyoumindifiplay.blogspot.com/2010/01/magic-gems.html

Enchants
http://doyoumindifiplay.blogspot.com/2010/01/raid-enchants.html

Fire Spec for PvP (what the heck, it's on mages and by the same author so I included it here)
http://doyoumindifiplay.blogspot.com/2010/01/fire-in-pvp.html

Another author talks mage PvP for Wintergrasp with his own specs.
http://thegrumpymage.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/the-joys-of-making-things-go-boom/

Many thanks to Gnomeaggedon for pointing the above resources out.

And here's another with Mage Combat Tips.
http://fieryweapons.wordpress.com/2010/01/19/how-to-play-a-mage-combat-edition/

And one with mage crowd control tips.  The Blog-o-sphere is exploding with mage information today!
http://fieryweapons.wordpress.com/2009/12/22/how-to-play-a-mage-cc-edition/

Raiding guide for mages (Patch 3.3.3)
http://www.empoweredfire.com/2010/03/31/raiding-guide-updated/

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The Best Gems for Tanking

Pwnwear discusses what he believes are the best gems for tanks, including socket bonuses.  The Comments have interesting information.http://pwnwear.com/2010/01/19/best-gems-for-tanking-socket-bonus-considered/

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How to Gem and Enchant That Hunter

OutDPS has a guide from September 2009 on how to gem and enchant your hunter, regardless of your individual spec.  There's a link to his DPS analyzer, too.  This is pre-Patch 3.3 but it still may be very useful for you.
http://outdps.com/2009/09/14/epic-gem-and-enchant-list/

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Most Popular Professions and Gems

Zardoz of the Amory Data Mining site has new charts up showing the popularity of various professions and gems.
http://armorydatamining.appspot.com/general?t=RandomWalkDownStormwindStreet

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DK Tank's Guide to Enchants and Gems

WOWhead has a short list of enchants and gems a Level 80 death knight tank needs to run raids and Heroics.  NOTE:  This was done for Patch 3.2.2, folks.  It probably doesn't work now that we are at the pre-Cataclysm Patch 4.0.1.

http://www.wowhead.com/?forums&topic=119851

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When, Where, What to Gem

GEM BASICS

Until the Wrath of the Lich King came out there were four types of gems (red, yellow, blue and meta) that fit into sockets on your weapons.  Putting a gem into a socket enhances your gear in some way.  Note that once you put a gem into a socket, it is there forever. It's superglued in place, so to speak.   It cannot be removed although you can put another gem on top, which will destroy the first gem.  So be certain before you act.  You don't want to make a costly mistake.  Here is what Blizzard says about gems and gemming gear.  By the way, The Solo MMO Player says most gems go on gear, not weapons.  I find that an interesting choice on Blizzard's part.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/items/socketeditems.html

After the Wrath of the Lich King expansion the gem system expanded into three primary gems (red, blue, yellow), three secondary gems (purple, green, orange), and then the meta gems which seem to be rare or epic.   Blizzard says in the basic gem info link above that you can put any gem anywhere except for meta gems that will only go into meta sockets, but there are special bonuses if you color match, so probably you want to do this when possible.  A secondary (such as orange) gem can go into two different sockets (red or yellow).  Along the same lines a purple gem can go into a red or blue socket and a green gem can go into a yellow or blue socket. Doing this color matching of gem to socket keeps to The Plan and might award you secondary bonuses.  Of course you may not care about these bonuses, depending on how your character is set up.

http://www.wow.com/2008/07/18/gems-in-wrath/

WOW Wiki talks about what the gems mean and how they work here.  It's confusing but at least they break down the gem types so that you know which ones are available in which area.

http://www.wowwiki.com/Gem

Those who are jewelcrafters can buy epic gem cutting patterns using Dalaran Jewelcrafter's tokens.   You can't buy the patterns with gold, and this has been heavily criticized (see second link below).  Raw gem material is gotten by mining titanium ore and by alchemy transformations or bought through honor or Emblems of Heroism.

http://www.wow.com/2009/06/16/epic-gems-and-profession-changes-in-patch-3-2/

http://www.wow.com/2008/12/10/jewelcraftings-flawed-design/

Apparently there are a lot of folks not happy with the state of jewelcrafting after the Lich King changes.  You can read a good critique of the current system (Patch 3.2 Call of the Crusade) here.

http://www.wow.com/2009/05/22/insider-trader-jewelcrafting-nerf-incoming/

RESEARCHING GEMS

The WOW Gem Finder looks like a useful little tool as you can search for abilities or colors, and everything links to WOWhead so you can look up more information on their extensive database once you know what you are looking for.  It is not up to date however.  It doesn't include the changes in the gemming system that the Wrath of the Lich King expansion brought to the game.

http://www.wow-gem.com/gems.aspx

There is a list of gems broken down into four categories of red, blue, yellow and meta on the Allakhazam site (it is not up to date either).  Click on a category and a list of all those type gems opens with the effect shown.   This isn't searchable and I don't think it is nearly as useful as the WOW Gem Finder but here it is for you to use if you like.

http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/gem.html

RECOMMENDATIONS

I've found several articles recommending certain gems for various classes.  I can't judge just how useful these are but they are here in case you play one of the classes I found information on. 

Death Knights (PvE only)

http://www.wow.com/2009/02/01/lichborne-pve-gems-for-death-knights/

Hunters (enchantment recommendations here also)

http://www.wow.com/2009/01/22/scattered-shots-a-pve-gem-and-enchant-guide-for-hunters/

Restoration Druids

http://www.rollinghots.com/2009/06/29/jewel-studded-resto-gems-in-patch-3-2/

http://4haelz.blogspot.com/2009/09/gemming-your-resto-druid.html

Rogues
http://samueltempus.wordpress.com/2009/09/03/gems-for-your-rogue/

Shamans (enchantment recommendations here also)

http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/shaman/enhancements

Warlocks (2007)

http://wowmb.net/forums/f104/26552-socketing_guide/

FIGURING IT OUT ON YOUR OWN

What you have to do is look at your own specs and gear and decide what you need, then research where you might find such items.  This is a top-down approach.  You could also just look up info about gems you get in drops in raids you plan to run, or can make, and decide how best to use them.  This is more a bottom-up approach.  Solo players probably need to do both things as they don't have a guild bank that has gems one can take and are probably not raiding except through PUGs.

This two year old article may be of some help.

http://www.wow.com/2007/07/06/insider-trader-a-diamond-is-forever-a-consumers-guide-to-ge/

Here is an example of figuring out socket bonuses.  It's really just applying a bit of math to the gems that enhance areas you want to optimize.

http://bighitbox.com/index.php/2009/08/lets-talk-about-socket-bonuses/

Note that the Solo MMO Player thinks enchants might be more important than gems.  Don't obsess over this to the extent that you don't play and enjoy the game, in other words.

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Gem Database

You may have realized I am researching gems and gem sockets for the Solo MMO Player. I'm not ready yet to write a When, Where, What to Gem summary article but I will post what I discover here for your use until I get the Big Picture written.

The WOW Gem Finder looks like a very useful little tool as you can search for abilities or colors, and everything links to WOWhead so you can look up more information on their extensive database once you know what you are looking for. It is not up to date however as it doesn't include the changes in the gemming system that the Wrath of the Lich King expansion brought to the game.

http://www.wow-gem.com/gems.aspx

There is a list of gems broken down into four categories of red, blue, yellow and meta on the Allakhazam site (i.e., it is not up to date either). Click on a category and a list of all those type gems opens with the effect shown. This isn't searchable and I don't think it is nearly as useful as the WOW Gem Finder.

http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/gem.html

MMO Champion has a WOW database for items, including gems.  Choose Items: Gems and then the color you are interested in.  The results are pretty basic.
http://db.mmo-champion.com/

They also have a guide to the original gems (yellow, red, blue and meta) here.  This lists the bonuses available from each.
http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?page=98

Here is a color coded list of gems (finished and raw) with their stats.
http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w278/frazzledog/Gems.jpg

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Socket Bonuses for Gemming

Interesting article explaining how to calculate socket bonues for gemming.

http://bighitbox.com/index.php/2009/08/lets-talk-about-socket-bonuses/

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