Beajay wrote: You're not penalized in terms of difficulty: the items you make normally are exactly the same as those that you're crafting during a quest or a writ. The only "penalty" is that you get only the item XP while during a tradeskill quest you get a very hefty chunk of XP from the quest. Crafting in EQ2 is at it's hardest when you first start since your abilities do very little durability or progress. You may fail an item and make fuel (ie only hit the third level and miss the fourth) sometimes because of that, there's not much way around it. Although nowadays its easier than ever since you have things like the tradeskill AAs to make it a bit easier. But even then it's a thing you have to adjust to. Countering the events properly is key, as missing them or miscounteing them will be a hefty durability and progress loss.
Ynnek@Kithicor wrote: I never pay attention to the numbers. I watch the bars. When I see an encounter, if all my bars are full, I hit the progress bar that matches the encounter, and then the other two in progression. If my durability is lagging, I start with the durability encounter number and then progress with the other two. It seems to work for me 99% of the time. I personally don't know how people are able to walk away and have it progress to the finish. Any time I don't pay attention it fails to complete.
d1anaw wrote: Yup. Whether you watch the numbers, watch the bars, or listen for the sounds, the important thing is to be aware of the pacing of the events. Watching for the floaty numbers is suggested at first simply because it's the easiest thing for beginners to notice. It's a simple, easy to see, visual notification of when each crafting round begins. Keeping in pace with the crafting rounds, instead of spamming numbers constantly (and as a result having reactives unavailable when an event pops up), is the number one hurdle most new crafters face. I can't comment for everyone that watches TV while crafting, but I can tell you that I do it by listening. The start of each crafting round (when the numbers float, and the bars twitch), comes with a little 'whoosh' sound. (It varies by crafting station, I spend most of my time at the workbench). That whoosh is the indication that I need to glance at the game screen for and instant to look for a counter. If there is on, I hit it, and then two others (ie, 5, then 46). If there isn't one, I 456. So my eyes are 90% on the TV, with a quick glance to the PC every few seconds when I hear it woosh. I sit with my fingers resting on the numeric keypad, so I don't need to look to hit the right keys. I wouldn't watch a movie I'd never seen before, or something else I was really into that way. But it works well for idle tv watching (Kitchen Nightmares on Netflix for example...)
About the tradeskill AAs I was leveling Alchemy prior to the tradeskill AAs. It was rather slow going, and I had slogged my way to 54. I have 3 90's, 2 in their 70's and one in the 20's. Frankly, I was burned out when it came to crafting. Then the AAs came... and what a difference they make First, some background on crafting (all of the numbers below assume this is your only crafter, or that you at least have no 90's giving you a bonus): 1-9 is fairly easy. Quests provide most of the xp, or if you prefer to just grind them out, they aren't that hard. 10-19 is tougher. I do the crafting quests because they give a TON of tradeskill xp and will level you faster than just grinding out stuff. If you take the quests at 10 when they are available, odds are good that you WILL fail on the items you are trying to make. It happens. Fortunately, you still get really good xp from a failure =D 20-59 stinks. Its hard. It really is. Your counters aren't quite good enough (you get upgrades at 20, 40, 60, and 80) and the xp needed per level goes up dramitically. Watching my xp, with full vitality, you can count on 1 crafted item = about 1.5% xp for these levels - maybe a tad more in the lower levels - maybe a tad lower higher up. However, work orders (specifically rush orders) offer about 15% of the xp needed for your level. What does this mean... If you "grind out" a level, you'll need to make about 67 items. If you do work orders, you will need to do about 3.3 work orders per level, or, you will only have to make about 40 things per level. If you do rush orders, you will need to do about 4.2 rush orders per level, or, you will only have to make about 25 things per level. By simply doing rush orders instead of grinding, you can cut the number of combines you need to do by almost 65%. Add that up across the 70 levels (from 20 to 90) and you're looking at saving yourself around 3,000 combines over the life of your character. That's a lot of wear and tear on the hands. If you can't complete a rush order for whatever reason, work orders will still save you about 1,900 combines. That's nothing to sneeze at either Now, back to the AAs. If you have 25 AA to spend on any crafter you have, I strongly suggest doing it. I spent all 25 of mine on increasing the progress, the durability, and the sucess chance. I left anything to do with harvesting alone, and didn't have enough to up my critical success rate. All told, I spent 10 in the first tier, and 15 in the 2nd. And what did this do for me? Well, previous to the tradeskill AAs, I was able to complete a level 89 rush order in about 4 minutes. This 4 minutes included spending some AA's in the previously available tradeskill AAs, and taking any and all traditions that increased my tradeskilling. Also note that I was using a max level crafter - which means I had the best counters available, and could use 4, 5, 6 most of the time. My average on anyone under 80 was about 6 minutes per rush order. After investing the 25 AAs, my lowly little 54 was able to crank out rush orders in 3 minutes on average. My personal fastest was 2:40. By simply investing those 25 aa while I was tradeskilling, I didn't have to fight the durability bar. A missed counter (usually certain death for the item I'm making on a rush order) no longer required me to spam 1, 2, 3 to try to bring the durability back. I simply kept right along with my 4, 5, 6 and if things started to go badly (almost no durability left on the last bar) 1, 2, 3 almost always snapped it right back to full. I took my new alchemist to 90 over the past 4 days. I was extremely happy with the tradeskill AAs. And when he hit 90, I went and spent the 10 gold to get them all back. I find you really don't need them at max level, unless you do a TON of crafting. I hope this helps
I am fairly new to the game and I understand what you are saying, although, I have found a better way to craft. deffinately use the numbers instead of your mouse, it makes it alot easier. Also when the an event comes up click on that one first but then click the other two (in sequence) after that, doesn't matter which ones you click on second and third as long as you click the main event first, I always use the 3 durability buttons, you can gain back almost a full bar of durability this way or close to it (most of the time, depending on the difficulty of the recipe). Another thing you might want to check on is what racial attribute bonuses you have towards crafting, I think all races have specific bonuses for a specific craft. Crafting something in an area where your race has no bonuses will make it seem harder than the craft that you have bonuses in. I hope this helps. Oh and one other thing, if you use the number pad make sure you use your mouse to click in the area where the event shows up, if you don't you will use whatever button is assigned to that number in your action bar. I don't use the number key pad, I use the numbers that are above the letters on my keyboard, not sure it makes a difference though. the event reaction buttons are numbered just like your action bar, 1,2,3,4,5,6, with 1 being the far left durability reaction button and 6 being the far right progress reaction button.
Ynnek@Kithicor wrote: Oh I watch tv all the time while playing. I was referring to the people who make it sound as if they get up and walk away from the computer while crafting. I don't keep my sound on my computer unless there is something I am specifically listening to. I cannot stand the noise.
I happen to enjoy the crafting in EQ2 and would really hate to see it go the way of so many others like. . .WoW in which you just click the number of items you wish to make and then you can walk away. . .make coffee, take a shower. . put your make-up on. . .go out to dinner and a movie and then come home and your crafting is done. PLEASE DON:T DO THAT to US! It would be horrid. . .and I think it would be then that I would quit. . . . . crafting like that is discustingly simple and even to bake a cake in RL you have to do a little work. (we aren't hogwarts students in which we can just wave a wand and the cake is baked, decorated and ready to eat!)
quiarrah wrote: I'm dreading the possibility that is exactly what the "apprentices" are / will be. I, too, think it would be horrid.
Dharan@Guk wrote: i set it that way..................................... knowing that ppl can change their hotbars is the reason WHY i said 4,5,6 was durability and 1,2,3 was progress.
Lodrelhai wrote: i mentioned that above & yes, i completely agree. if your armorer, alchemist, weaponsmith or jeweler were the higher ones and your carpenter, sage, etc were your lower ones then you'd be having a hard time with those classes.
I feel the OP's pain, I detest crafting in EQ2 but unless you want to be poor you have to do it. Crafting has changed for the better since launch, the original system had me very frustrated to the point of anger and often in tears. A boyfriend showed me how to craft successfully a couple of years ago and I master Provisoner on one toon, but that was it, but a couple of months ago I decided to get my head down and get on with it, the result being I too now have 9x90 TSers. Some classes did seem easier to me, Carpenter and Woodworker were the easiest I found as the noises set up a really good entertaining rythym to work to, the worst was Tailor where I could barely hear the sounds and thus found it hard to get into a rythym, or even stay awake! In all cases's 60 to 70 seemed very very slow compared to previous teirs, whereas 71-80 was much faster, slowing again a little for 81-90. For me though games should be Fun and crafting in EQ2 is not, its tedious Work! However on the flip side I think the crafting systems in other games are lame, they are not fun but also offer no challenge whatsoever. Maybe the new TS Dev they are recruiting with be able to provide us with a system that is easier, less tedious, but still a challenge. I'm going to be very peeved if they undermine all my hard work and just make it click n craft!
I am surprised that no-one has brought up the original crafting system. Lets gather sub components from 3 other classes for every final combine and I am talking prior to the cross class "Geomancy" etc was introduced. Whilst i personally enjoyed it, OCD ftw, I can imagine the comments we would be getting from the current new crafters. The new way is WAY faster and unfortunately, way easier *sad panda face*
Rijacki wrote: I think yes and no Rijacki . . . I am more of the mindset that as a player, the redundancy creates boredom. Doing it the first time and subsequently to perfect something is the entertainment and knowledge factors, for me at least. That said, I hope players will have to gain mastery and then be able to teach the apprentice so repitition can then be done by the drones, something like an actual Master and Apprentice relationship. The Apprentice should not be able to gain skill greater than their teacher sort of thing. If the player has to do nothing but click a button and let the apprentice spend "time" on their own I think it will be truly a shame and further loss to the game. The Researchers have done that and the predictions on those have proven accurate. Master spells have come down in price significantly making the prices for masters on the broker competitive with the Expert level crafted spells now. So why buy the Expert and spend a month of time to research when you can spend 20-30p and buy the master immediately? I always thought the spell progression was a little borked. Scribing and using a master level spell without ever using the expert, journeyman, etc seems odd to me. Much akin to performing surgery without ever having been to medical school. My 2 cents worth...time will tell I suppose.
Tuvogg@Splitpaw wrote: I always thought the dumbing down of the crafting system was a shame. I wish they had left the worts in subcombines in and used that as the basis for a true "Master Crafting" level. Allow us to make best of slot items game wide for such things and use the dumbed down system for a more "Apprentice" level crafting. /sad panda also
Artemiz@The Bazaar wrote: As someone that supplied WORTS and ink to his guildmates I can say that the removal of that system is the BEST thing to happen to crafting ever. Sages couldn't level their craft unless they could find an alchemist to supply ink, a carpenter to supply paper, and a woodworker to supply quills. For the ink alone it took 9 combines to make 1 vial of ink. And guess what? The sage would get more XP in 1 combine than I did for all 9. Why? Because final products gave more XP than the interm products used to make them. Back then crafted items were also incredibly expensive. Why? Because everybody wanted to be paid decent money for the products they made. So WORTS got a mark up, and every interm got a mark up, until all that cost was passed to the final product that basically doubled every mark up along the way. People that made final products got rich, not alchemists. Even under the system where you could make your own WORTS it took the better part of half an hour to make anything. Is that seriously what you want? You have to do 12 or so combines to make 1 item? I think people that fondly remember the old system are being overly nostalgic.
