It doesn’t matter what game I play, I’m always heavily involved in the crafting. In WoW the crafting was simple and easy, but there were unique recipes you could quest for and gather materials for. I liked that aspect of it even if I didn’t actually enjoy the crafting process itself. In Vanguard, crafting is taken to a whole new level and it’s exceptionally complicated and requires dusts and powders and there’s so much to it. It was a game unto itself. In EverQuestII crafting is a timed event that you have to constantly be present for, and while the risk is not as bad as EQ1 or VG, it’s still there. In EQ1 I’ve been trying to get back into the crafting. There’s a few significant differences between EQ1 crafting and EQ2. In EQ2 you’re limited to one craft per character. In EQ1 you’re not limited at all so long as you get the aa’s required to add more. I’m not sure if the numbers have changed – but the way it used to work was you could reach 200 in any (all) crafts, and then ONE of those, you could get to 300. You could also get your “masters” item from it. If you wanted more then one trade at master level, you’d have to sink aa’s into it.
You could also use aa’s to purchase things like a reduced failure rate. Great when you’re working on those augments (which I did). You can also reclaim items from a failed combine, something unheard of in most games. Once you failed, that was it.
When I left EQ1 three years ago my crafting character was Kameeko. She had:
- 267 Jeweler (Master)
- 200 Research (apparently the cap on this has moved to 300 for everyone)
- 200 Brewing
- 200 Fletching (arrows)
- 195 Baking
- 182 Blacksmithing
- 174 Fishing (I don’t even remember how to fish now)
- 187 Pottery
- 164 Tailor
I worked really hard on my crafting, and was proud of what I’d accomplished. When omens of war was introduced and augments became more common, along with the skill of crafting and upgrading augments, I thrived. I used to sell a LOT of them using materials me and my beastlord friend would farm. Seems like ages ago.
Anyhow, getting back into crafting has been complicated and difficult, but it’s slowly coming back. Especially due to great sites like EQTraders. I used the site way back when and still find it’s one of the best out there. It may not always be 100% up to date, but for what I need at the moment it works perfectly.
I’ve been selling some old crap that I’ve had stored on my other characters for some time now. Sales are not exactly frantic, but I made 16,000p over the past week or so. That’s more then enough to get by for now with general things like crafting. I’m slowly starting to remember what all the stuff is that’s in my banks, specifically the 3-4 backpacks I had filled with patterns (for the DoN cultural gear) that my enchanter was hording. I still have a long way to go, but it’s been a lot of fun.
Yesterday my baby Drakkin made herself four new pieces of armor though I did fail the combines a few times too. She made a pair of boots, a helm, legs, and a wrist piece. At level 15 I can equip them and add the augments to them too. I had Kameeko make those as Ishbel is not quite big enough to do it. They require a special quest to get recipes for symbols. Anyone can make symbols for anyone else, though the gear is race restricted. So long as Ishbel can make her own gear, Kameeko can supply the augments. DoN cultural crafted gear has three augment slots, which is one of the main reasons I like it. LDoN drops augments (last I remember at least) at lower levels. There’s also a quest for an augment in Crescent Reach around level 30 or so. Ah, so much to remember, so much to do! It’s great to be back.
I’d have loved to quest for some gear, like others in the Nostalgia bunch seem to be doing, but alas, Drakkin don’t have armor quests. Not that I could see at least. The DoN cultural armor is not the best out there, so I’ll still be in the running for upgrades at least (especially since not all slots are covered) which is a big factor – but at least I won’t be trying to heal the group in rags, either.