How Much Work Are Tradeskill Alts?

Discussion in 'Tradeskills' started by Aiona, May 8, 2021.

  1. Aiona New Member

    Hi all!

    I would like to level up all of the tradeskills. I assume I need 9 characters to do this?

    I haven't played since launch, so before I start leveling the other 8 characters I would appreciate any feedback and insight you all may have to offer so I don't make any uninformed decisions and end up wasting time/resources.

    Please add any thoughts/concerns you may have to the following:

    1. I made 9 Gnome Conjurers! I feel that if I level one class with the same experience each time, it would keep everything familiar and streamlined for me -- I would prefer ease and familiarity over "fun" for this particular endeavor. Is there a reason why this would be a bad idea outside of the fun factor?
    2. For my 8 alternate characters, I would like to just level their tradeskills and not even worry about their adventuring level. How possible is this? Would it require the help of other players at some point (I haven't played since launch so anything past low levels is a mystery to me).
    3. Should I level up my main first and then worry about getting my alts up? I would prefer to be self-sufficient and level them all up at the same time.
    4. Is 9 the max amount of characters I can have on an account or can I expand it more than that?
    5. I have one million plat from winning the "guess the song and band" game, twice on the Maj'Dul server. Will this be enough to get my characters to end game? If not, will be enough to get one character to end game? Haha.
    There's a lot of unknowns for me. Any advice you have to offer would be appreciated.
    Please don't be critical of my goal/idea of making all 9 crafters. It may not be your cup of tea but it sounds fun to me. I just might have to go about it a different way, depending on the feedback I get here. :)
    Thank you for reading!
  2. Wulfen Active Member

    This isn't easy to answer, but no one has spoken for 6 hours. Crickets.... My answers will come from having played since end of 2004. I have a Main and 12 other alts. One of those is intentionally still on board the rescue ship. Another is intentionally Unskilled. (He says he "isn't played much, and the pay is small, too". Ya think??) I keep my Main at 95 for the quests still available. She currently is carrying 5.5 million plat on her, and she has often generously shared plat with alts.. but level 95 doesn't need the billions and trillions that people 120++ need these days.
    Here's the thing.. She travels in lands where sometimes everything is red to her. Therefore all her younger tradeskilling alts will find that no deterrent in their own forays. And she has stopped progressing Tradeskills at level 111. All her alts do the same. (The two remaining ones are 104, working also to 111). There is a curious hitch in the Anchorage zone where a tradeskiller must make a level 20 object, and of course the level 5's do... but because the object is level 20, the 5's can't use it, therefore the quest remains forever unfinished for them. However they are still allowed to complete Mission quests for that zone. All the tradeskillers must fly to complete their higher level goals, and they must earn Prestige points for the Track Harvesting. They can be level 5 to do this. (I've seen a few level 2's, but it's hard to not stub your toe and get to level 5).
    I would think it dishearteningly boring just to stay in the tradeskill room and level up. I learned how to keep myself awake leveling up one of my two woodworkers. That wasn't fun. What is fun is to bring all those little guys out into the big dangerous world, skill up their harvesting, work the tradeskill timelines in Enchanted Lands, Lavastorm, Kunark.... earn your Ring and your Cloak. Your alts all help each other, as long as they provide help in proper order. Velious is really interesting and lengthy, and you get your wings!! And you feel pride of accomplishment truly earned by strategy, failure, retracing steps, courage, and perseverance. You can't get that in the tradeskill room.
    Sooner or later, before EQ2's sun goes down, my Main will overcome the post-level 110 adventure limitation and earn her tradeskill progress that hinges on it. I don't know if the younger alts will be able to do that. But that game decision is for another time. You want to level everyone up at the same time? You might learn things about yourself, and grow yourself as well as your alts. Blow the breath of life into their being. Different races, clothing and occupations provide different ways and attitudes toward tradeskilling success. You had an inspiration when you bought the game. Find it.
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  3. Tkia Well-Known Member

    I have a full set of level 100 crafters on 3 different servers so it's very doable. These days there are a lot of questlines you can do to level so you should only need to grind out the remainder of any tier with writs. There are also repeatable quests in some live events (Moonlight Enchantments on 20/21st of each month especially) that you can grind out for exp that actually provide their own harvests so you don't need to spend hours out harvesting first. I'd recommend heading over to http://eq2.eqtraders.com/articles/article_page.php?article=q1&menustr=060000000000 and follow through the questlines. You need to do the questlines because in many tiers completing them will give you access to your advanced recipe books on a vendor. And most of them are actually fun!

    If you plan on going all the way to max level I suggest you do them one at a time as you should gain an exp bonus for each of your first 5 maxed out characters which makes the following ones a bit easier each time. If you're not going all the way to 120 (and tradeskills are fairly broken after level 100) it won't matter in what order you level them.

    You only need to level up one character on the adventuring side so that you can use them to go out and gather harvests easier. It's perfectly possible to harvest in deep red zones on a level 20 toon but it's much easier and faster on one that doesn't have to worry about agro. If you're going to grind out writs to complete a tier you'll need a goodly pile of materials on hand to do it with. Yes you can get them on the broker but on live servers prices are frequently ridiculous these days.

    I'd also recommend doing Qho's harvesting questline "Gathering Obsession" on each toon as the level 90 reward is worth the effort. I'd also suggest working on Tinkering so you can make harvest and other depots for yourself when you get it high enough. Transmuting is useful on a toon that adventurers so you can convert rubbish loot drops clogging up your bags as you go. The 3 secondary skills of Tinkering, Transmuting and Adorning each have a daily quest you can do which gives a hefty amount of exp at lower levels and gives you the needed materials, so do those every day to help levelling anyway.

    Up to level 100 (I don't play beyond that so can't advise) there are only 2 signature quests that need the help of other crafters and if you're making all 9 of them you can handle those yourself. Denmum's site gives full details on how not to screw up the complicated one if you do ;)

    There's no limit to how many characters you can have on an account as long as you're prepared to keep buying the slots. If you're paying the sub you get 7 as standard and will need to buy 2 more. If you're free to play you get 2 and will need to buy 7. Also if you drop a sub at anytime all but 2 will get locked and you'll need to either re-sub or buy the 7 slots to get the access to them back.

    Oh and when you hit levels 9 and 19 don't waste time filling the exp bar. Just go get certified to your chosen craft as soon as you ding and the trainer will move you into levels 10 and 20 for free.
  4. Gharyn Well-Known Member

    Here's the best advice I can give you: locate Londiar Inygad. He is based in all the major cities. Ask a guard for directions.

    He has three quests that can be done once a day (every 18 hours) that give tradeskill exp. They will also raise the secondary skills of tinkering, adorning and transmuting. He supplies materials, all you need is fuel. You only really need those skills on one alt (well, transmuting is good for all because of notrade gear) but they're worth doing for the exp. Oh, and a BIG hint, you only need to do each combine to the first segment and stop it. You will still get credit and save a TON of time in the long run. :>

    I'm not saying to use this guy exclusively to level but just park your alts by him and try to log them in every day and do the quests. Then you can concentrate on one alt at a time to do other things like writs, harvesting, tradeskill questlines, etc.

    This is the most efficient way to raise up multiple alts to cut down on burnout, imo.
  5. Wulfen Active Member

    Join a guild friendly to tradeskillers. Exercise ethical use of their resources (using only to level up with, not for sale... harvesting more to replenish supply not just for you but for guildmates). For sure Tinker your way up to be able to make yourself some storage depots. Londiar Inygad helps you in this; more recipes will be available for you to scribe.
    The most pressing need will be storage. Big mistake not to make that Carpenter early in the game! Purchase a few house deeds. Each house will only have the same six vaults, but some houses are well suited to just throw your unused junk at, to sell later or use. Your Sage will later make you notebooks to organize your accumulating information. Those you can carry around with you, or put down in your house; either way you can read them, erase or amend them.
    Every level 1-9 tradeskiller can make everything of that level. Your projected tradeskillers aren't limited by specializing... they can totally look handsome, make armor, ammo, their own food, and enhance their spells.
  6. Aiona New Member

    Thank you everyone, I appreciate your insight and advice!

    After giving it some thought, I am inspired to try out a few other classes as well. This is going to be a fun adventure :)

    And thank you @Wulfen for your thoughtful posts. I prefer that reaching the pinnacle of end game is a consequence of my journey, and not the goal with everything else secondary. In most MMO's I play it's all about the journey, because they aren't meant to end... so our journey ever continues! This is one reason why I so enjoy both EverQuest games, everyone (and each character!) has their own story even though we share the same world.
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  7. Niami DenMother Well-Known Member

    I'm late in responding, but as other said, having 9 crafters is totally doable.

    Re: not leveling the other 8. If you want them all to be able to do every crafting line, they will need to go out in the world and harvest for themselves, mob dodge in overland zones, etc. If you don't want to level the alt horde on the adventure front, they will be squishier and die more often. (On the plus side, your repair fees will be lower for lower-level characters at least, and you will do some leveling just from location xp bonuses as you run them around.) I really, really, really recommend that each and every one of them do the Gathering Obsession quests for the eventual pack ponies, as you'll need/want those extra harvests with that many crafters under your belt.

    Personally, every time I create "just" a crafting alt, they tend to grow on me, and I end up adventuring with them when I need a change of scene anyway. The next thing I know, they're squabbling about which of them is really the main ;)

    Re: Keeping them similar in crafting level. I would play this one by ear. While it may be handy to have them all close or the same in crafting levels, that can be pretty draining by the time you hit the 6th or 7th repetition of the same quest. You will also likely find yourself painfully low on certain resources for the tier as they all vie for the same materials to use to level up. If you find yourself getting frustrated, you might want to level the main crafter up until they're out of vitality, then work on another one until they're out, etc. When burnout hits, you may let some classes lag a bit - if your main is a finger-wiggler, for example, letting armorer, weaponsmith, carpenter (you can have the tailor make bags) and alchemist be last in your leveling conga, as you'll have less need for anything you make via them. Then, once you've recharged, and have more resources, you can catch them up again, and so on.

    Re: Expenses. Since you're planning on being mostly self-sufficient, your worst expenses will be from recipe books, especially in the tiers where you can't crafting quest for the advanced books (Level 40 and beyond, mostly, with exceptions) If you're doing the various crafting questlines, instead of just the tinkering/adorning/transmuting dailies and/or writs, you'll start making money from the crafting lines relatively quickly. If you have to resort to broker-diving for anything, prices are insane, but if you're harvesting and such, you will make more than you spend, over time.

    Recommendation: Pick one house to be a crafting house. At the bare minimum, you will want a personal harvest depot. With time, you will likely want some of the other depots as well (collectibles, potion/poison/totem, food/drink, etc.) for easier sharing amongst the alts. Yes, if you join a guild, you can, within reason, use and contribute to their depots, but sometimes it is good to have a personal stash of things like rares, for sharing amidst the alts.

    Let me know what your main name is on MD, and I can make up a personal harvest depot to get you started off on the right foot. :D

    ~Mum
  8. AOE1 Well-Known Member

    Having all 9 crafters is totally doable. Only one area did I have problems with a crafter doing the Signature line that was below adv lvl 100 and that was getting through Aurelian Coast since if the toon is under adv lvl 100 everything saw through camo/invis. Once past that the rest was just careful traveling but I got all of them to lvl 120 and flying in all the zones. So it is doable. Carry EB items and camo totems and go for it. Be careful of where you walk and peek around the corners and you will be fine.
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  9. Trebien Member

    As others have said, it's very doable to craft at a very low adventure level. The original devs wanted crafters to be just as viable as the adventurers, and made it possible (not easy) for everyone to do whichever they wanted. Or both, you can level up both at the same time. Crafters level a little faster than adventurers though, but it's very likely that you will NOT get by with plenty of deaths. My advice? Don't worry about repairing your gear. Just go through the zones, and if you are subbed, get to level 10 adventurer. Then you can lock your AA, and it will benefit you as an adventurer as well. You can also use those AA to improve your crafter as well.

    If you go through and level up with the various crafter questlines (definitely pick up the mara harvest quest as soon as you are able, at level 10 crafter), you will gain items that will help you on your way. You can get a leaper mount through both adventure and crafter, you get a different color choice depending upon which leaper you want to use. If you do both versions, I think you get three color choices, but I'm not sure. You can get a lot of useful gear that will help your adventurer out as well, later on. It's actually quite fun to go out and challenge yourself

    Don't forget your tinker, transmute, and adornment skills. You can go to either Gorowyn, or Halas, depending upon your alignment. If you stay with conjurer, then you'll be headed to Halas, for your free 10 items to skill up your secondaries. Don't neglect them, and make sure you transmute anything you get during your travels. I get tons of level 1-15 stuff while I'm running around for my adventure and craft quests. This allows me to rapidly work on my transmuting skills. All of this is useful, so definitely work on those as well as your main crafting.

    You definitely should focus on one crafter at a time. It's because once you have one at level 120, you gain a 20% tradeskill exp gain for your remaining crafters. Each crafter that you get to 120 will add an addition 20% to your remaining crafters, and you'll be able to fly through all of the quests. Still worth DOING the quests, but it will get easier to get to the endgame if you choose to skip quests. There are some where you definitely want to complete, so that you get a helpful item, but you may find that it's faster to just skip those as well. You can get the xp bonus for up to 200% xp bonus, I believe. The same applies to adventure level, you gain a 20% xp bonus for each max level character you have. It is divided, separate from tradeskill xp, so you need to work on it separately as well.

    Without being subbed, things are more difficult. You won't have as many character slots available, unless you purchase them as a separate item. It's best that you sub before thinking of doing that, because you get that 10% coin discount. It adds up, and can make quite a difference if you purchase anything you might want while subbed. It is, however, possible to get to max, as long as you have the latest xpack, even if you don't sub. You will need to purchase any xpack in the future, that raises the level limit, in order to keep or apply that 20% xp bonus. It won't apply the second the level range is increased, until you again reach the new level max. That part can be extremely frustrating, but at least you know about it now, before the next xpack comes out. I don't know if that one will change the level limit, but it might.
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  10. Trebien Member


    As a crafter that has many alts, I wanted to remind you. If you sub and purchase character slots, you lose the last four or five that you have on the account. So if you purchase an addition five slots, you will have access to your original two, plus five (since you have a total of twelve slots while subbed). You will lose access to the five characters that you have NOT logged into last. The game will let you keep access to the two that you have most recently logged into, as well as five additional. Again, it's going to be the ones that you logged into most recently. So, if you enjoy playing a particular set of seven classes, you want to make sure you log into those and leave the unwanted ones alone, not logging into them before your sub drops. I could be wrong about how many you gain when you sub, but just be aware that the extra that you gain for subbing, you will lose that number if your sub drops. You will NOT lose the number of slots that you purchase, but you may lose access to those particular characters if you allow your others to be logged in and out of before your sub drops. You can also gain access to the additional ones by either deleting those you have access to, or purchasing additional slots. Subbing will allow you to regain additional slots, if you have gained access to your other toons by deleting or purchasing slots.
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  11. Tkia Well-Known Member

    Level 5, adventurer or crafter.
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  12. Trebien Member


    Really? It told me level 10, for some reason. Didn't matter much, I was planning on getting to that point anyway.
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  13. Tkia Well-Known Member

    Really. We had a query on it a few years back and I specifically tested it. If you know what you're doing you can have your harvesting cloak by level 17, possibly earlier if you can avoid the exploration xp.
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  14. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    ROFLMAO!! :D

    Sorry...yes, it is definitely possible to have more than 9 characters on one account... /giggle

    Take it from the "Father" of the Horde: I have 120 toons just on my Gold account, and others on Bronze and Silver accounts (mainly for inviting a main alt into a guild when it's like 3 am and no one else is on ;->). Spreadsheets are my guide and comfort. :)

    (Back in the day when we still had double and triple Station Cash weekends [sadly, no longer really a thing, and haven't been since SOE split from SONY, I think :-/], I'd get a bunch then and save up for when they had sales on things like Character Slots...)

    I seem to be late to the discussion, but what I've done on each of my 6 servers (the 4 US ones, Thurgadin in the EU, and Public Test), where I have at least 18 characters each, is striven to have at least one of each of the four main food groups -- er, of the character -- class -- groups? Categories? Whatever they're called, the Fighters, Mages, Clerics (Priests?), and Scouts. That way, I'll have something for all my crafters to do: the Armorers, the Weaponsmiths, everyone, for outfitting my main and my alts on each server (though Uwk here is my overall main. I'll also strive to have at least 2 of every race [1 male, 1 female] throughout my Gold account, but that's neither here nor there).

    Word of warning: except for tradeskills that make consumables, like Woodworkers with their Totems and ammo; Provisioners with their Food/Drink; the three Scholar types with their spell upgrades, potions, etc., you won't have much call for things like Armorers or Weaponsmiths (or maybe even Tailors, if your alts have all the bags they need) any more past level 100, what with all the freebie goodies that the devs insisted on handing out to us at level 100 and 110 (not sure what they do at 120, but I can't imagine them stopping) at the entryway zones to those tiers. :-/ And everyone loves a Carpenter! :D If folks want house items at all, Carpies will always be in demand, regardless of level. :)

    As to any other advice of varying usefulness, p'raps I'd best read the rest of the posts... ;->

    EDIT: Ah! One thing I've found, looking at my spreadsheets: my newbs tend to get a lot of help initially from the others (you have a good enough Collectible Depot, and those turn-ins shoot you up from 1st level to at least into the teens ;->), who make them gear up to and including Tier 3 (the level 20s), but after that they do tend to stall until I in-game mail the relevant crafters and nag them for more gear at the x9 level (29, 39, etc.): "Help! I'm at level 29 and holding; I'll need level 30/32 [for the Imbue-able gear] stuff to be able to advance!" It may seem a wee bit schizo, but it's either that, or tons of Post-It notes all over my monitor's frame to get me to remember who needs what. ;->

    Hmm...maybe having 120 toons wasn't such a great idea...I can stop at any time! Really! Honest... :confused:

    Uwk
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  15. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    Like your signature, dude, but the way I do it? The TV and my computer desk are in the same room, and I've rigged up a thing that enables me to glance at the screen from time to time without having to leave the game. ;-> So, I can have my game and consume my TV, too (not that we really do much TV any more; Da Hubster's computer is in the same room, too, and he mostly does videos. Really, the only thing we do TV for at all is news and Jeopardy [no cable, just an "antenna," and since TV isn't free any more, we only get ABC. Sigh :-/] and watching DVDs).

    And good advice for those dailies, Gharyn, though I've never personally seen much use for Adornments (/shrug). Your mileage may vary, Aiona. :)

    Uwk
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  16. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    Caveat: the Sage-made notebooks need a level 50 Sage, with a special quest on the Isle of Mara (Wiki has a good write-up on that). Other than that, I completely agree with Wulfen's advice (though house items are NOT junk...), with the added advice that your Carpenters can also make you Strong Boxes of varying, increasing size to store stuff in, as Tailors can with Backpacks. What I do is place a 46-slot Thick Bear Hide Backpack into each of my 6 slots in my House Vault, and I can get a lot accomplished that way. My Bank bags and boxes generally tend to be smaller, but high level Tailors can make bigger containers than Carpies can (sadly), and most "special" bags will fit in a bank slot. I'd recommend getting the biggest bag/box you can for each of your Shared Bank slots and fairly hefty ones for each of your personal Bank slots. :)

    Uwk
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  17. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    Brilliant! :D

    Seeing a post like this brings me hope for the game; so many (mostly LOUD) players chime in about doing the run from 1st to end-game as fast as possible ("I did it in less than a week without an end-game Token!" "I did it in 24 hours, dude..."), and then wonder why they're bored once they've "won" without understanding what the point is. ;->

    Uwk
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  18. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    Subbed accounts, full Members, get 7 free character slots (d-deleting toons?? /twitch :eek:). If your Membership subscription fails for whatever reason, Aiona, just the last 2 toons you played will be available; the others will be locked. Any character slots you pay to unlock, though, either from scratch at F2P or because something happened, should still be there; you paid to unlock them. ;->

    Being a Member, though, just makes everything easier: you can use the Broker to sell things without additional cost, you can Mail stuff from anywhere (and in some cases, at all... :-/), etc., etc., etc. What I'd recommend, if you can swing it, is getting more than one month at a time; it's cheaper in the long run if you plan on playing longer than 6 months->1 year, and it definitely sounds like you want to! :)

    Uwk
    who took YEARS to realize that $120/yr. is way less than $14.95/month... :confused:
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  19. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    I've been up to the teens and beyond in Adventuring, and the li'l -- fewmet -- Qho wouldn't give me the time of day until I was at least level 5 in Crafter. :-/

    (Yes, Qho's quests in the Gathering Obsession line are important, but I guarantee you, Aiona, you will quickly learn why we all pretty much want to strangle the li'l fewmet before too long. I'm wondering if that's why the devs finally pulled the Qho Plushie house item, since so many Carpenters were doing terrible, terrible things to it in their houses. ;->)

    Uwk
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  20. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    Oh! A thing about those Gathering Obsession quests: if you've also gotten a separate harvest quest like the one you can get at level 20 from the Tradeskill Master in any city, where the crafting NPCs want you to gather 50 supplies/mats/etc., Qho's quests take precedence. If he wants like 15 Roots of some sort, he will take his pound of flesh before they'll count for any other quest. X-P

    On the "up side," you won't be filling your bags with stuff for Qho's quests, necessarily; he'll "take" out what's needed for his demands long before it'll show up in your bags...unless you don't comply. For instance, in the first one, he wants 5 each of jumjum, black coffee beans, baubbleshire cabbage, and raw white tea leaves (among other things, but not 20 harvests from shrubs, mind; that'd be too easy...). If you've gotten, say, 13 cabbages, he gets his 5, and you get to lug around the other 8 in your bags. ;-> Fortunately, materials stack up to 800 per slot nowadays, which can be useful...there will be other times he'll want meat of varying types, and all you'll find will be Leather types, which he doesn't always want. X-P

    Re: gathering, once you get to the Thundering Steppes, there will be a certain Halfling, Duggin Brandywine, on the docks, who will be "as hungry as hunters," as Treebeard called them. And he'll want to send you out to various zones to get various edibles (meat/shrub stuff, but no roots or seafood, dang him), after which he'll reward you with a fairly cool house item, depending on what you're looking for in that regard. It also helps with increasing your harvesting levels, if nothing else (but yeah, Qho's stuff takes precedence even over the Hungry One). As a matter of fact, there's an entire Timeline for him... ;->

    Oh! One thing about the Wiki articles; it's all volunteer fan run, so they may not necessarily get updated all the time. When articles say that a harvesting quest REQUIRES!!! a certain level of harvest, they're usually old and wrong. Nowadays, the only thing you need to worry about re: harvesting is if you're looking for Rares, specifically; that's when you need to have a certain harvest level; it is possible to harvest any node on like, say, Luclin, even if you have like a 5 skill (it'll take a bit, and a lot of "Nothing found"s, but you can do it). ;-> Denmum has an excellent article on that sort of thing over on EQ2 Traders. :)

    Uwk
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