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Echoes of Faydwer and the Crafter

So, the NDA has been lifted, and you want to know everything about the expansion and crafting NOW. While I can keep telling you until I am blue in the face that nothing whatsoever is set in stone until it actually launches on November 14, I am not a big fan of that shade of blue.

(I will, however, use blue in the below text to indicate anything that has changed since the morning of November 6)

So, I'll give you a nice virtual snack to whet your appetitite and leave you with one extra reminder before I go back to testing. Go ahead and make plans for your future crafting based on what you read here if you must, but realize that any of it could change in a heartbeat. Things WILL still change before launch. Things WILL still change AFTER launch, once they see how everything behaves with ginormous hordes of players poking at them. It is the nature of the beast with something this huge, and if you come crying to me afer launch because you bought up a ton of X in preparation for the launch, and the recipe suddenly changes to need Y instead, I'll likely simply tell you "I told you so!" {grin}

Now that I've given you the obligatory warning (and yes, I know that many of you will totally ignore it, and spend tons of time and money hoarding things you think you'll need, but at least I made the attempt to warn you), on to some actual details of what is coming. After seeing how confused folks are getting during the testing phase, trying to wrap their brains around which who does what, I'm going to start my explanations of the new stuff in a different order, and see if that helps clear things up a bit.

Something for Everyone - Adornments

Every crafter of sufficient level can make adornments. Get that fixed in your head right now. Everyone. It doesn't matter what, if anything you choose for your secondary tradeskill, you will have adornment recipes available to you. Of course there is a catch, as there usually is, but don't focus on that. Repeat after me.

Every crafter can make adornments.

Again. Every crafter can make adornments.

I know this sounds extreme, but there is a reason for it. After WEEKS of trying to unconfuse folks in beta who just could not get all of the systems and subsystems untangled from each other in their minds, you really, really, really want to start with the mental base of keeping adornments totally separate in your mind from everything else. Once you have repeated the above to yourself several times, and you have it solidly embedded in your mind, then move on to the nitty-gritty.

  • Adornments are tradeable items made by crafters to enhance gear.
  • Any player can apply/use these adornments once they are made.
  • Every adornment will have a slot listed in the description, and can only be applied to gear that belongs in that equipment slot.
  • Every adornment will have a level listed that is the minimum level of the gear item that it can adorn. Level 20 adornments, for example, can go on level 20 (or higher gear). You cannot put a higher-level adornment on a lower-level item.
  • The gear item to be adorned must be at 100% condition. Repair first, then adorn.
  • Only one adornment can be on an item at any time.
  • Adornments are permanent, once applied. You can replace the adornment with a different one, but the old adornment is not returned. Once you apply it, it is done - you cannot get it back.
  • Any item that has been adorned will show extra effect names in yellow when you examine the item, and any stat modifications in blue.
  • Every tradeskill class will have adornment recipes (sold in the new expansion zones), and no two classes will make the exact same adornment. Now will they all get equal amounts of adornments.

There will be adornments to add procs to items. Adornments to add resists. Adornments to add stats. An adornment to help you take less damage when you fall. And so on.

When broken down like this, it truly does sound simple. So, why the confusion?

It is because of what adornments are made of. You will craft adornments from the materials created by transmuters. You do not have to choose transmuting as your secondary tradeskill in order to make adornments. However, you DO have to use items that transmuters have created. Just keep repeating to yourself - any class can make adornments. Yes, unless you are exceedingly rich, if you want to make adornments, someone in your crafting army is going to want to transmute, a LOT, but keep reminding yourself that while you need the stuff, you don't have to BE one to make adornments. If you repeat it enough times, you may actually survive your first several dozen confused encounters with customers who haven't got a clue what they want or need, only that they want and need it and think you can make it.

Let that percolate in your brain for a bit, and we'll move on to less confusing topics for a moment before tackling the secondary tradeskills.

Things that CanNOT be Adorned

At this time, the stated plan is for the follow item types to not be allowed to be adorned:
  • Heritage items
  • Qeynos Claymore Quest Series items
  • Godking Weapons
  • Prismatic Weapons
  • Imbued tradeskill made items

EoF and Harvesting

Faydwer zones are ... large. In several cases, such as Greater Faydark and Butcherblock Mountains, we throw out the old model of a zone equalling a tier of content, and find that the zone, and the mobs within it, span two tiers, with lower-level content on one side, and higher level content on the other. As with the mobs, so go the nodes. You'll find tier 1 harvesting nodes in the tier 1 portions of Greater Faydark, tier 2 harvesting nodes in the tier 2 portions of Greater Faydark, and so on.

Cloaks!

Starting at level 23, and every 10 levels after that, tailors will be able to make cloaks. Think of the recipes that you get for dress clothes, and mentally change them over to cloaks to get a feel for the number of roots you will need for these, with one pelt thrown in for good measure. Rare cloaks will swap one common root for that tier's rare roots. The recipe books for these are brand new and only found in the new expansion. The current plan is for the books to be no-trade, so if you don't buy the expansion, don't expect to be able to make cloaks. Cloaks can be equipped starting at level 20 for the Tier 3 common cloaks, and any cloak can be set to either display the natural colors of the cloak, or your guild's heraldry, if they have chosen one.

Altars?!

The little diety quests that we have seen up to this point are nice little introductions, setting the stage for the return of the gods, but they don't actually do much of anything other than give you a neat house item. When EoF is released, expect to see entire series of quests that let you choose which god you wish to worship, then send you out on tasks to help gain favor with that god/goddess and hasten their return into the world. In order to make appropriate offerings to your god and gain various blessings that you can then later use/cast, you are given an altar for that deity that you can place in your home. On top of the altars that are awarded as part of these quests, carpenters can buy recipes for both common and rare altars. The 8 common altars are level 35 and will use briarwood, feyiron and etched leather. The rare versions of those altars will require ebony, rosewood, adamantine and horned leather. Screenshots can be found here. Using crafted altars will give you a reduction in the cost of miracles and blessings that you obtain from your deity. Note that these altars are LORE, which means you can only have one of each type in your inventory. You can, however, have multiples in a home, on the broker, etc.

Imbues

Rewind on the late-breaking news. Imbues WILL still stay in the game, though no new imbue recipes are likely to be forthcoming in the future. Imbued items can NOT be adorned.

Another Small Carpenter Bit

There will be a tinkered item that will summon a 5-minute mender, that charges higher-than-normal repair rates. (i.e., good for large raids). In order to balance things a bit so carpenters aren't getting hit too hard by the decrease in demand for repair kits, the plan is to decrease the cost of making repair kits to something a bit more sane, and increase the cost of making the mender. Current plan is 7.2p for the mender and 12g for the carpenter-made repair kit.

Secondary Tradeskills

Adornments are not secondary tradeskills. Adornments can be made by any class of crafter. Got it? Keep that in your mind. We're about to dive into the spots where folks tend to get that concept tangled up.

Before we tackle that, however, I have a new mantra for you to also repeat: "Secondary tradeskills are meant to be hard." They're not going to be something that everyone wants to do. They will be time-consuming. They will be resource-intensive. They will be expensive. Yes, there will be a huge demand for items from these two secondary tradeskills, but they are meant to be hard. SoE wants them to be hard. Their idea of "hard" and our idea of hard may be two different things, so prepare for this to be a rough and rocky road if you decide you have the time and patience to work on these.

Raw Skill vs Level

Before we go into the details of the two secondary skills, let us start with a bit of explaining how the whole skill vs level thing works.

When you train in a secondary skill at crafting level 10 or higher, you start with a raw skill of 10. Every five points of skill equals one level. Therefore, you start with an effective level of two. Your skill cap, meaning the maximum skill that you can gain at any given time, will be your primary crafting level times five.

Many of us find that math is easier with examples, so let's make it easier!

  • A level 15 outfitter trains to become a tinker. His persona sheet will then list them with a tinkering skill of 10/75 (15*5). He can then work on tinkering until skill 75 (level 15 recipes), but is unable to skill up any further until he becomes a level 16 outfitter. (At which time he gains another 5 points to his tinkering cap, allowing him to reach a raw skill of 80.)
  • A level 70 carpenter trains to become a transmuter. Her persona sheet will then list her as having a 10/350 (70*5). She can transmute to her heart's content, providing she can find the materials to do so, as the maximum cap to her transmuting skill is the current game-maximum. 10 points down, 340 to go!
Ok, so "level" equals raw skill divided by five. Recipes will show in your book by level, but skillups change your raw skill. Expect folks, including you, to get the two confused now and then, especially since there's no xp bar for your secondary tradeskill. (You gain in skill/levels as you slowly get skillups from the crafting process.)

Tinkering

Before the Shattering, only gnomes learned the art of tinkering - making whirlygigs and thingamabobs with complex names that often did quite simple tasks. In some cases, they also had some interesting side effects! Times have changed, and tinkering can now be learned by any level 10 or higher crafter.

There are items like rebreathers (head slot, enduring breath effect), items to summon limited pets, items to increase a crafting skill, and much more.

So, what's the catch that makes this so hard? They use boatloads of resources. Not just little kayak-sized boatloads,, but huge ginormous cruise ship sized boatloads. Starting with tier 2, you'll want to have loam coming out of your ears, followed closely by ore, add in a bit of the jewelcraft soft metal for good measure, then add in bits and pieces of gems, hides and wood now and again. Did I mention lots of loam? And ore? And lots of loam? Don't forget the loam, 'k?

Transmuting

Stretch. Breathe. Just for a couple moments to just let some of that percolate through your mind before you tackle this next bit. Your brain will likely thank me later.

In simplest terms, transmuting is breaking down or recycling valuable items into bits and pieces of ... stuff. While this sounds pretty simple on the surface, there is a lot more to it than that. If it truly was that easy, there wouldn't be this many confused folks running around!

  • Items that can be transmuted include Treasured or better gear, adepts and master spells. "Gear" means wearable/attuneable stuff - armor, weapons, symbols, shields, hex dolls and the like. It does NOT include stackables (food, drink, newer poisons and potions, lore and legend drops, etc.) or furniture, etc.
  • What you can transmute from the above list will be based on your raw skill, so with a starting skill of 10 (remember level = skill/5, so this equals level 2) versus the level of the item, you're going to be looking at transmuting level 1 and level 2 gear. It is good to note at this point that tier 1 rare gear has a level requirement of level 2, so will be a good target for your initial few skillups. After that, you'll be looking at crafted adepts and box drops.
  • You currently can't transmute items above your transmute level (skill/5), though there may be some "wiggle room" added in still
  • Skillups from breaking down items will be more common within 2 item levels of your current skill. If you have a 25/350 transmuting skill, for example, which equals level 5, your best chance for skillups will be level 4 and level 5 items.
  • Rewind your brain at this point, and note that I mention the level of the items, NOT the level of the recipe used to make it, if you're working on mastercrafted items, so most of your mastercrafted stuff will only be good for skillups at the start of the tier, other than adepts.
  • Transmuting results will be based on the tier of the item. Tier 1 items return tier 1 components, tier 2 returns tier 2 components, etc.
  • Items received from transmuting will include, from most common to most rare: fragments, powder, infusion, and the very rare mana vial. Which one you get will be sort of random, based on the item you have munged. Mastercrafted items will most often give you fragments, sometimes give you powder, once in a very great while will give you an infusion, and once in a really great while, two of the above from a single item. Ditto for treasured items. Fabled items will be more likely to give you an infusion, and once in a blue moon will give you a mana vial.

Ok, you may or may not have processed the above enough to realize that you're going to be breaking down a LOT of items in each tier that come from box drops. Tier-based box drops. Let that percolate for a bit.

Now comes the real kicker, and keep repeating to yourself that it is still in beta, and things can change. At this time, and again, this can change, once you hit skill 100 (level 20), you will no longer be able to gain experience from breaking down items, but only from making the transmuter-specific adornments. (Not your adornment recipes from your primary tradeskill, but only the ones found in the "Enigma of the Transmuter" books.) Things are changing in these last couple of days of beta, so that the transmuter-specific adornments include recipes that use the more common transmute materials, so the skillup path should be a bit saner than originally feared.

Hey, 'Mum, What if I Change My Mind?

If you feel you have chosen the wrong secondary tradeskill, there is a mechanism in place to allow you to reset your tinkering/transmuting choice. Realize, however, that it will reset you to base skill level in the new secondary choice, and you'll have to start over scribing recipes, gaining skillups, etc.

Now, off with the lot of you. I've got a lot of stuff still to test, and it has been a rough week already.

Created: 2006-07-26 06:38:45          
Last Modified By: Niami Denmother          
Last Modified on: 2006-11-12 11:06:49          

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