I haven't been playing this game long. And maybe some of you can help me out. Is trying to lvl my trade skill going to always be so frustrating and boring? I'm now lvl 24, and I have my little +1 vest on, and "Workman's Insight", and even one of the exp. potions. And for the life of me I can't make a lvl 21 item. You know, a so called "easy" item to make. Easy my butt! "-46, -46, -92, -46, +21, -92" and then fail. Yes, I know about the different buttons needed to be used. You can't use them if they don't pop up in the window. "-92, -46, -46, -92, +12, -46, -46" fail! Please also explain to me why everything else lvls up so fast except my "fletching" lvl? I mean I fart in a mobs general direction and I get 3 lvls, but my fletching barely changes. Right now it's at 88/120, and I'm almost to lvl 25, when I'll get 5 more points added. In the entire lvl 24, my fletching went up a few points. Really? And lastly... is it this way because when I max out, I'll be able to make the "bestest gear ever" in any online game in the history of online games? Please, can someone help me out? I'd very much appreciate it. Sorry for the rant, but give me a F'n break!
okay to raise fleching the easy way. Which will most likely not make a successful combine BTW. is just pres 123 123 etc over and over till the combine fails and repeat You have a chance of a skill up everytime you press a button success or failor. Any yes you can use those arts even when they are not poped up in the reaction window. Lower level rush orders are a pain because of Durability decay, Make sure you manually change your Tradeskill aa' get 5 points in High quality material then 5 points in swift creation next. At lower levels you have to concentrate more on durability them progress. So what i is this As Soon as the combine starts quickly hit teh 3 durability increasing abilities fast. this give you a little buffer to durability at the beginning which helps alot. After that i hit the 2 progress abilties that do not lower sucess rate. waita few seconds to be if a reaction pops use then i switch back to 2 durability mods and repeat. Now doing this it is possible to missa reactant in which case spam 123 a few time fast so you durability will go back up. It will be slow but concentrate on keeping you durability high . Any well not the best of the best the New Master crafted Bows staves and wands with refines rares and experimented on are way better than any Non curent tier raid dropped weapons that i have seen
The higher the level you get, the easier it is to craft items. You get items to wear and tradeskill prestige points that are quite helpful. I'll link a guide to crafting at Zam ... at the bottom of the page that I linked to are links to additional crafting information. http://eq2.zam.com/wiki/Understanding_the_Arts
If you're level 24, plug some points into your tradeskill AA's if you haven't already. Particularly increasing durability gain and success chance. I believe you start gaining tradeskill AA's around...level 15? (it's been a while since I raised a tradeskiller)
Hi Shawn...others will likely pop in with much better info for you [the crafting community is an amazing one], but I wanted to give you a quick bit of advice: you can definitely use the reaction arts when they aren't explicitly needed to counter a detriment, it's how you progress. Each one builds up a bit of progress or durability, depending on which you hit, enabling you to complete the craft. Very generally, the crafting process runs in small repeating cycles, and you'll usually get about three key presses per cycle. Then you'll hear a 'whoosh' [or a 'bling' if you finished one of the four lines], your progress will update, and you repeat. The detriments that pop up have a chance to pop once during each of these cycles, so most folks wait for the whoosh, watch for a detriment, hit their three keys if it doesn't, or react to it if it does [making sure to also hit two more keys to keep things moving]. In general, I use the 'progress' arts as much as I can [4-5-6, the ones on the right in the default layout], with an occasional 'durability' one thrown in to keep my upper [green] bar from getting too low. So my pattern might be 4-5-6 [whoosh] 4-5-6 [whoosh] detriment needs me to hit 5 to counter, so I hit 5, then 4-6, [whoosh] durability gets low so I hit 1-5-6 [whoosh] and so on. You'll also want to keep an eye on your power...crafting uses power, and two of the reaction arts use more of it [3 and 6 in the default layout]. So if your power gets low, just use the 'non-power' arts for a bit to build it back up [and try to leave a little bit power in reserve in case you have to use those power-hungry arts to counter a detriment]. It becomes routine after a while...the lower levels are the most trying, but it does get better.
Seriously, crafting levels 1 through 15 are probably the hardest part of the whole thing. Those levels are all about praying to Brell that you get counters to make. Once you hit writs it becomes quick, and then once you hit 20 things will turn into smooth sailing. I pretty much do exactly what Shmogre does above. Use the 'progress' arts until I am uncomfy with where my durability is. All of your reactions get better and better every 10 levels as well. As Wirewhisker mentioned, don't forget your basic tradeskill AAs. You start receiving them at level 10, and you will have them maxed out by 16 or 17. They're incredibly impactful. Aside from that, there's some basic gear you can buy as you level, which you'll find in the great sticky at the top of the forum.
Thank you all for your replies... Lol... I still haven't figured out how to do the AA thing! Maybe it's time to look for a good guild. Any suggestions? I'm on Permafrost
No matter how high you get, tradeskilling in EQ2 is an awful, mind numbing grind. That said, I have several max level crafters because I want to be able to make armor and weapons for all my alts.
Rule 1: Get a guild with a crafting area in their guild hall. Most any established guild has so many low level common ingredients in their depot that you'll be able to leech off their excess without them noticing, caring, or complaining. Hell, most of them are just glad the stuff actually going to good use. Rule 2: There are tradeskill questlines. At your level, go to Butcherblock and look for someone with a green quest feather. They don't give as fast XP as writs, but they're a LOT less mind numbing. These quests involve recipes that don't use your skills, and they're usually a bit easier. Rule 3: Assign AA points to anything that gives durability gain, then success chance, THEN progress. Respec for critical success once the idea of failing a craft becomes laughable. Rule 4: Learn your reaction arts. By default, these are numbered 1-6. These are used to counter problems, but they also have their own effects. They last for one craft cycle (about 4 seconds) and with good timing you can fire them off every cycle. 1-3 increase durability. 4-6 increase progress. 1 and 4 decrease progress/durability, whichever they do not increase. They share a cooldown. 2 and 5 decrease success chance. They share a cooldown. 3 and 6 cost Power. They share a cooldown. 4 and 3 are your best friends. Use them as often as you can. Only use 2 or 5 if you're countering something. As you get better, switch from 3,4 to 4,6. Eventually you'll be succeeding often enough that you can 4,5,6 on each cycle. If your durability is slipping, switch to 1,3. 1,2,3 is desperation tactics, when you either want to just fail outright or get back loads of durability.
But I enjoy the pve questing, exploring (though not much to explore after all these years) harvesting, leveling grind The crafting grind is just snores-ville after about 10 minutes.....
I enjoy doing the tradeskill quest lines.They're not quite as fast as grinding writs until your eyes bleed, but they're more interesting, give AA and useful rewards as well, including access to advanced recipe books.
Not anymore. With the rise of the Raffik Recipes, excess mats of all tiers are flying off the shelves to make Amalgamations. And some of us guildleaders take a dim view of any of their guildmembers wiping out the harvest box without doing their part to refill it.
I like crafting. If I didn't like it, I wouldn't do it. I do however miss a good death at the forge, and the fear of failure which has long since gone. Do the tradeskill questlines in preference to grinding writs to max level. Just keep pressing buttons when crafting. Bonus points for pressing the right one. If you have the ability to use the apprentice, do it. Use the potions and stuff. Yes join a guild and get someone to help you with AA. Once you get used to it, it's quite simple. Start your hatred for Quo early and pick up the harvesting quest in Mara as soon as you're able. Harvest, harvest, harvest. Do the daily adornment quests, DAILY. Transmute every drop you get. Failing that, if you hate crafting, don't do it.
I hated leveling my woodworker. It was the last one I got up to 95 and will probably be the last one I get to 100. I think it's just the nature of the beast on that one, though as I finally did make some levels, I discovered some really useful stuff they can make. I love leveling my carpenter. My carpenter is my absolute favorite and the one I almost always level first. I did my sage this time because of the spells.
I loved the Raffick quest...and the items we can make, however this can create a horrible issue. I also think it's valid to use up different tiers of mats, but the Amalgamations may leave all the hides and drain every bit of ore and food. We already had to refill level 30 once, which was heavily overstocked. Several crafters did the Raffik quest and BOOOM! Then, the switch was to another level...same issue, etc. The problem: There is no way one player can donate enough to the harvest box to recoup this, other than purchasing mats. While we don't mind folks alternating between different tiers and/ or turning off Depot & crafting them from Bag (my preferred method), some players may change guilds, not realize the impact, etc. The problem is enough, that it may cause guilds to change Harvest Depot Settings, etc. Suggestion: When someone is doing Writs in the Guild Hall, you can tell by the Event Log and they are present in crafting room. If crafting Amalgamations, create an event in log, same as a writ, so that the Guild can pull the person aside privately and explain about mat consumption. Unlike other crafts, these can go through 1000's, if in production spec. If your guild has not drained a tier yet, this may be something to discuss ahead of time. Most of us are used to our Harvest Depots being filled to the brim. Kitty
You can choose what items you use when creating a recipe that has multiple possible sources like the Raffik recipes. It works in the same way as choosing a purified rare as opposed to a regular rare. I generally instruct people to burn off Fish first, since fish don't have nearly as much utility as other mats.
I've talked to my guild members as well. The main thing to be aware of (and the real problem with amalgamantions) is that crafting prefers to use the smallest stack of materials first when given choices. Refined materials are an exception to this. But it means with 30k fish and 20k hides in your harvest depot, it will go after the last 500 iron clusters first. Then it will clear out your 800 coffee beans before it goes after the 1100 tea leaves. And even if you change the material to use immediately....you've done it too soon. You need to select what materials to use after you select quantity if your going to use mass production. Honestly its a finicky headache. As for restocking the depots, the broker is instant gratification. If you expect one person to do it by themselves they better be someone with an army of crafting alts who can run the Goblin and Pony show every 2 hours. Doing this 9 times every 2 hours nets almost 1k of non-bush items and about 2k of roots and wood. Convincing yourself to send the goblin and pony out for T3 mats instead of a chance at T11 rares is the hard part. That is also why if your going to be responsible you convince people to 1) gather their own materials if they are using the amalgamantions for themselves, and 2) stick to T11 for making amalgamations so you can painlessly replace the materials. It is much easier to pay a few more gold for fuel and convince people to harvest top tier than it is to save a few gold and get people to harvest lower.
I know this seems "mean" but I suggest that only tier 11 materials are used as Meirril suggested above or kindly ask in a guild mail / message that anyone crafting these items use their own personal depots. Its 2000 mats for a single consumable item to be made (200 common mats per amalgamation, multiplied by 10 amalgamations to craft a single consumable). Now I made the "Brew of Readiness" for a guildmate, he granted me access to his own depot to avoid using materials in the guildhall. I had access to 99,999 T11 fish to make the brews and I probably had a couple stacks on me at the time. Even with Systematic Conservation spec in my tradeskill prestige, I was only able to craft a total of 66 Brew of Readiness for my 'customer' using his depot and all his fish. Time it took to wipe out his supply? Less than 3 minutes with mass crafting.
I expressed my concern about these recipes early on. Small guilds like mine won't have issues, but I can see how problematic they can be for large guilds. How would people feel about changing them to only use fish? It's less flexible, but much, much safer. And really, isn't that what people should be using them for?
