With the anima weapon grind being tedious, I've turned to crafting.

[Ninster]

And when I last left off, I was wearing AF gear, with ilvl 55 accessories, off-hand, and original blue tools. I was in a similar state with gathering.

So I decided to take on the challenge (or rather, the only thing I can do until I breach level 51, I assume) of progressing through the 2.x crafting endgame and making good friends with Talan.

At first I figured I'd see how far I could get without melds since I was gonna replace stuff anyway. I quickly realized I wasn't going to get past lvl 50 1* recipes.

So, some quick (and minimal) melds with food power later, I'm now in possession of the artisan main hands, and ready to leap for Supras and the off-hands. I also took advantage of SE dropping the gathering requirements on old nodes and got my botanist and miner their Supras.

As fun as this has been, how far will all this hold when I tackle Heavensward again from the crafting and gathering perspective? Also, just how much easier (or necessary) will this make the transition into Heavensward leveling? That is, could it be feasible to try out the lvl 51 recipes now?

[Granyala]

As fun as this has been, how far will all this hold when I tackle Heavensward again from the crafting and gathering perspective? Also, just how much easier (or necessary) will this make the transition into Heavensward leveling? That is, could it be feasible to try out the lvl 51 recipes now?

Why waste all that time? Oo
I leveled my crafters in the unmelded HQ Patrician set with the blue quest main hand and el-cheapo militia offhands.

Sure 50->53 was kinda rough, stuff was VERY difficult to HQ. But who cares. I'm drowning in leve quests anyway, so just dump 10x normal items into that for 1 level.
I had all crafters at 50 though)

I wouldn't bother with farming ARR gear as the lv 53 crafting gear (you get the complete set from quests if you level all crafters or craft it via weaver) is probably already superior.

Oh just a fun note: the crafting quests in HW don't seem to need HQ items, so they can be facerolled even in crap gear.

[Empty-handed]

do your daily GC hand ins, they give massive boost at lvl50. like... almost half a level lol.

and focus on leves. might start rough but you will get there. update your gear with the new recipes you will unlock at 51+.

a good melded artisan gear+supra can last you up to level 56ish. then you must replace them. anyway dont bother if you dont have artisan+supra. you will replace them anyways.