Soooo, despite having played this game since 2007, tradeskilling was always one aspect of the game I really paid next to zero mind. Soooo, now that im kinda messing with it, ive got a couple questions about it, mainly those little clicky abilities. I know blue is progress, green is durability, and to click the proper clicky when thye show up, but my questions are about those clickies and what they actually do and if there are like hidden mechanics I dont know. I sit there just spamming the +Progress button and yet I dont seem to see it do much. Then one minute, I get a HUGE jump of progress, other times next to none. other times my durability just randomly drops. Then other times despite spamming +Durability my durability does nothing but go down, even when I get all the little clicky popups correct..... Is there a balance I have to strike between spamming +durability and +progress? Besides the clicky pop ups, is there any point to the other clickies besides the ones that just add +progress and +durability? Is the tradeskilling in this game just kinda start it and let it go, only making sure to get the popup clickies correct?
Try reading the tooltips on the buttons you're clicking - they tell you what they do. Try reading your chat log - it will tell you why you just got a big leap or big drop in a bar. And yes the RNG plays a part and there is nothing you can do about that. Bookmark and read this http://eq2.eqtraders.com/articles/news_page.php?menustr=010000000000 for all your tradeskill information.
I am a progress type of a crafter. Hit progress (4,5,6) rapidly in one turn gets you the most progress. Then do it again the next turn. If the rng pops up a problem, hit that corresponding button first and then try for 2 other progress buttons. Wash, rinse, repeat till done. Durability isn't needed unless it gets really low, then you may have to hit 3 durability buttons quickly in a turn or 2. Once you get used to it, it is a walk in the park.
"start it and let it go" I've actually done that out of necessity a time or two, but no, it is not something that will succeed at the lower levels. You will only end up wasting resources without any level gain. When I first began doing TS's, I was an avid button masher until my bf made a snide remark. After that, I paid closer attention and noticed that the mashing was actually hindering me. I found I needed to swap placement of the buttons so that all the progress buttons were grouped together on 1 2 3. Then when durability began to dip, it was a simple move of my hand to press only the durability keys on 4 5 6. Just be sure to click the buttons at a pace that is quick but slow enough to press the matching icon when the need pops up. You will develop a good rhythm. While it is not always possible to predict which icon is needed, I've learned to jump to the durability keys if I missed the correct icon. The lower levels of tradeskills are painfully slow. It really helps to set up your AAs to gain maximum progress and durability. You can save three different profiles, as I'm sure you've noticed by now. This is especially useful when you want to switch from Harvest focus (mine focuses on rares, movement speed, food/drink consumption) to Rush Orders (City Task that needs fastest progress) or to Mass Production (when you need lots of totems ammo etc). If you are in a guild that utilizes the tradeskill amenities, then you can use the Rush Order City Tasks to very quickly gain levels between the TS quest zones. Eventually, you will get high enough level that you can speed through fairly quickly, but you really have to play around with the AAs to figure out the best combination that best fits your style of play.
If you're desperate to salvage a tradeskill combination, focus entirely on the 3 durability reactions. They do give minimal progression, but they focus on making sure you keep going. If you miss a reaction, expect to take a heavy hit with the next turn, and THEN take another hit unless you're able to immediately recover with a successful reaction on the next turn. Earning back durability or progress can take a couple turns to just get things moving in the right direction again if you fail a reaction.
Ive read the tooltips, im looking for more indepth info on what they actually do. Ive read my chat, it says: Critical success, thats about as vague as one can get. How and or why did I get a critical success this time and not the next time? If I spam all 3 of the progress buttons, vs not pressing anything, one minute I get a ton, the next I dont. That isnt explained anywhere in chat, or otherwise. Tradeskilling stuff seems to be so random.
I just sit and spam the + progress. The others reduce success chance or reduce durability, so im like, why would I press those!? Im like Provisioner lvl 47 on the one toon who actually has anything into tradeskilling.
You are not wrong. The ones that add the most to durability do detract from progress, but same is true for the flip side. The most progress detracts from durability, but on a lesser scale. Fortunately focusing on progress is going to finish the task fastest, and it is okay to hit them in random order. Oddly enough, frequently changing the order I press the keys helped me to make fewer mistakes when the icon popped up. Just set your pace to about the same as the cooldown so that you have a better chance of hitting the required icon when it pops up.
I don't see where anyone has mentioned the basic mechanics of tradeskilling here. My buttons are set up such that 1, 2, 3 are durability, 4, 5, 6 are progress. I usually spam 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3 at the start of a combine, then use 4, 5, 6 over and over until done, countering adverse events as they occur. My window may look a little different than yours. I use the DarqUI tradeskill window to avoid missing reactions. It helpfully shows a visual square in which the lighting changes as the crafting cycle proceeds, and the same square shows any adverse event. There's no guessing about when you have enough time to squeeze in one more crafting button.
