I'm thinking of returning to the game and wondering what the most useful tradeskill class is for the end game? I would of thought provisioner for making the rare food and drink?
Alchemist can also be useful for potions and poisons. Provisioner has the advantage of being able to make things for all classes, which makes them handy to have leveled and ready to go.
Honestly for top level crafting there is no single class that can claim to be the best. Any of the 3 spell makers (sage, alchemist, jeweler) are useful. Alchemist could claim to be slightly more useful since it makes poison and potions (consumables). Any ranger would rather have a Woodworker around for arrows. Everybody eats, so provisioners are good. If you are into decorating, carpenter is a must. If you aren't, then you have no use for a carpenter other than doing quests. But if you are going to make a crafter to make tradeskill quests easier, make a weaponsmith. It is harder to find top end weaponsmiths than carpenters. Mostly because it sucks being a weaponsmith. Tailors are amazing at making gear. Not only mage and leather armor, but also cloaks and backpacks. They also make charms and belts at various tiers. For some reason they make fist weapons and throw weapons too. Not a class you need day to day, but its definitely one of the strongest tradeskills. Just to finish off the list, Armorer is really useful for twinking out characters while they level. At the top end of the game, well, dropped armor is going to be better. When you have time to farm equipment drops from heroic content are just going to be what you use. Crafted gear can help you skip over farming solo instances for gear, but at the top end of the game you can afford to spend more time gearing up since that is basically the only thing you can do anyways. This more or less applies to Tailors, Weaponsmiths, Jewelers and any other class that produces gear. Simply put at 100 your entire goal is to get better gear than crafting can produce, and it isn't a hard goal to accomplish.
IMO - you should have 1 of each! The issue arises where you need something made and of course you won't be able to find the crafter you need - happened to me once to often as I leveled my main so I took a side trip and leveled one of every crafter to 100 Oh, and don't forget Jeweler and tinkerer and adorner Jewelers make the charms - not tailors and they make rings and earrings and things as well Tinkerers make the call of the tinkerer for evac as well as other helpful clickies and crafting gear! Adorners make the gems to add to your gear Woodworkers make clicky totems and arrows galore! Provisioners make that high end food and drink with the ultra rares Armorers make decent armor as mentioned until you get the drops you need Weaponsmiths are in need of some luv but they do make a few decent items to help get to max level - I hardly ever use mine except to make some weapons until I get drops - they also make throwing weps at high level and some fist wraps etc Any class can now do the high end spells AFAIK And of course don't forget the apprentices - they discover the recipes you need for lots of the good stuff! Of course having all these crafters also increases your resource inventory (by getting multiple goblins and ponies) significantly so you hardly ever have to go out harvesting unless you need the ultra rares Like I said, one of each and you'll have it made!
I have one of each and so I have someone to make whatever is needed. Carpenters make more than furniture and other decorating stuff. They can also make strongboxes and repair kits. I have my shared bank with a strongbox in each slot. That really helps when I need to make and share stuff with my other toons. As for the higher level crafters, they get a harvesting goblin that is really handy as they can gather ANY level of harvests. And if they choose to gather, they can track harvests.They can summon any kind of crafting station. When I decided to make a BL I chose to make her a provisioner because, as someone said, everybody eats.
I tend to second that - will save you most plat in a long run - rest of the things are very situational I am running as an alchemist because I was rising this char from level 9 for Epic 2.0 hence was looking for class with fastest combines and something semi useful - hence it did work for me Alchemist give you portions like mana regeneration or health regeneration or some curse dispels. My primary ascending class is etheralist so I am eating a lot power pots
Unless dev has gone back and altered the 1-95 recipe books Tailors make the only charm slot items that give you stats. They are called hex dolls. Yes, that got switched at 100 so Jewelers make a variety of charms and I don't think tailors got a 100 hex doll recipe. If you want to nit pick about it, Tailors also make belts until 100 and then suddenly jewelers start to. Go fig. Tinkerers and Adorners are secondary tradeskills. What that means is anybody can learn those skills. Even non-crafting characters can become max skill in these. The limit of how much Tinkering and Adorning you can learn is the highest of your adventuring or tradeskill levels. I didn't mention totems because in the grand scheme of things they aren't use by the majority of players. Most people carry a stack of evac totems if their class doesn't let them evac. Many people carry invis totems, but the higher level the content the more likely that EVERYTHING will see invis. While I consider potions to be weak, totems are in an even worse position. And since its been mentioned, introducing "rare" and "Ultra-rare" food was a mistake. Before their introduction there would be the occasional quest recipe that was more powerful, but gathering materials wasn't ever super difficult, and it wasn't tedious either. Now that provisioning has rares you can find entire threads complaining about the rare and ultra rare materials. Worse, encounters are balanced around the idea that you have the stat boost from that food available to you. In effect, provisioners as a class were NERFED when rare food was introduced.
To add to the thoughts herein. Personally, I love having good food....and the addition of rare foods, plus infusions, gave the Prov class a way to generate income. Tailors: Cool items at low levels, plus they can make bags. Woodwoker: Totems are useful, especially Deadly Sabertooth (run speed), Escape and Water Breathing. They also do Ammo. Sage: I don't use much for spells, i prefer to buy Masters, but they can make several consumables super necessary at end-game, like scrolls of prowess, etc. Alchemists and Jewelers also make spells, depends on what you need for your main adventure class. Without going into all the classes, in Kunark Ascending, there are purple runes which are TS class specific. They interact, hence making all classes viable. My suggestion to the OP: Prov is solid, or choose one of the Outfitter classes fitting your chosen Adv Class, so you can make your own armor at low levels. I ended up with one of each class anyway Good luck on your return. Kitty
