Don't sweat it for now as Tier 2 vendor bought recipes are just not back in the game yet, for now you'll have to rely on drops - this is testing after all - but rest assured tier 2 recipes will eventually (probably) make a return! (I wouldn't smelt up everything at once without leveling to accumulate a higher skill cap either)
But rest assured you'll be able to get it going again~! Remember that this is testing still.
This is one of those 'Catch-22' types of issues with the game currently. VR has been clear that there will be much better ingame tutorials and onboarding at release. Which would be really handy to have for testing. BUT... all the systems - especially Crafting - are still in a state of flux, so time/resources spent on serious tutorials can easily turn out to be wasted effort when changes are made.
I'd strongly urge anyone interest in Crafting to get access to the Pantheon Discord. There is a large amount of info there about Crafting, lots of people happy to answer questions, and a couple of pinned posts with outright spoilers for those who want them.
