sometimes when you are crafing you get a light purple ring around you and it's supposed to help you somehow. I've been making a huge amount of food/drink on one character and a huge amount of arrows and totems on another character, I get this hypro glow abount once a week, if I'm lucky. what triggers it and what am I doing wrong that I'm not getting it?
That's the (class) Insight buff. It's a random event that is also available on some furniture items, such as the statues seen here. There's also a level 85 crafter quest for a class-specific item that can be turned into furniture and provide the same effect.
FYI, the buff adds +25 to that (class) skill. This means you are essentially crafting (atleast for skill checks) as if you were 5 tradeskill levels higher. During the lower levels, when you have few other buffs from AA or things like the earring or shawl or cloaks or aprons, that 5 levels makes things a bit easier, especially when crafting white-tier items for xp. As you level, your abilities get much better (every 20 levels), and you pick many +this or that%, and you end up with many pieces of gear available with many +(your skill). Tradeskill skills, like harvesting, are generally follow a "more is better", but unless you have a LOT above your maximum, tiny ammounts are pointless. In the old old old old days, the skill ups did not come as fast. It took quite a while before you got that 5 more skillups you needed to cap out each new level, so getting a random +25 temp buff really helped. Sadly, now, you will likely re-cap your skill on the 1st craft after you level. There are other "glows" or events too, though much more rare. http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Tradeskill_Events Bonus info: there really are Insights for Tinkering and Adorning finally! None of the house items can give it to you (since it only looks at your main TS class), but they do come up
