Now updated to include data up to Game Update 63
This is intended to be a lay person�s guide to rare harvested items and to what to do with them when found. You don�t need to be a crafter to benefit from this guide (in fact I assume most crafter have proably learned most of this while working) but you are best off if you know people to work with, such as guildmates, who can help you with producing items from your rare harvests. This is what you need to know about what they do in order to work with them.
These can be forged into weapons, chain or plate armor, kite or tower shields, tablets (jewelcrafted item) and furniture (lights for tiers 1-5, other pieces in T6-T9). The armor and weapons created will be attunable and hence usable only by one owner. Remember, however, nice though a bronze weapon might be, for a level 7 character, you'll outgrow it pretty fast. In addition, the tier nine and ten ores are also used in mastercrafted jewelry. (This was done due to the doubling up of spell rares since loam doesn't exist in those tiers.)
These can be tailored into leather armor for brawlers and druids, backpacks, as well as ranged/ammo items (quivers, sacks, bandoliers, satchels, etc.). Rare packs will have two extra slots over their non-rare counterparts (T7-T10 will have +4).
This can be made into wooden weapons, bucklers, roundshields and bows by a woodworker. It can be turned into rare furniture with a higher status rent reduction on it, by carpenters. Tiers 1-9 can be used for strongboxes, with more storage space than the handcrafted boxes from the same tier (also by carpenters). Carpenters can also turn tiers 3-9 into various sales crates for use on the broker.
Can be tailored into cloth armor for caster types, hex dolls (tiers 2-9). Carpenters can turn some tiers it into rare rugs, paintings, and tapestries. In some tiers jewelers can turn it into scarves.
These come off the same node, and the soft metals are not to be confused with the (hard) metal ore.
These are some of the most sought after rares. Rare jewelry and ranged items can be made from them. (Generally, jewelry made from the rare gemstone will be of more use to casters, and jewelry made from the rare soft metal will be more suited to tank-types.) In tiers 6-8, they will also make furniture. Their main use, however is in Expert spells/CAs.
For tiers 1-8, the gems are used for priest experts, and the soft metal is used for mage experts. For tiers 9-10, the gems are used for priest and scout experts, the soft metal is used for mage and fighter experts.
In tiers 1-8, loams are harvested from ore nodes. The rare loam is used for both fighter and scout Experts. In tiers 9-10, Experts are made off the gem and soft metal (See the section above this.)
These items can be harvested off the various nodes. While all newly-harvested imbue materials will use "material" in the name, you will find older items still on the broker, etc. (___ Tooth; ___ flower; ___stone; ___ fish scale.)
There are recipes for many lovely imbued items, scattered across many crafting professions: shields, weapons of all types, chest and leg pieces from base armor sets, and rings. In each of these cases, the crafter takes a pristine version of the item in question, along with an imbue item and a fuel, and makes an imbued version of the item which has a proc of some sort upon it. Hex dolls, which also require imbue materials, have a slow-casting spell effect upon them, but you craft the raws directly into the finished doll, instead of making a finished product, then applying the imbue materials.
The creation of an Expert spell/CA of any type returns 2 dust as a byproduct. This dust is used only by alchemists, in the creation of rare potions and poisons. (These dusts can also be obtained by making one of the tradeskill apprentice recipes that requires a reactant.)
A crafter is gong to need the Advanced recipe books in order to craft items with these rares. (In some cases, they will also need special faction recipe books.) While it is possible to buy the level 1-9 Advanced books, and quest to unlock the right to buy the level 10-39, 50-59, and 70-89 books, you can also find the level 10-89 Advanced books as mob drops.
Especially in the lower tiers, the Advanced books drop mainly from mobs that are the exact same level as the volume number, but this can vary as you progress to the higher levels. For more information on rare recipe books and how to get them, see the Recipe Book Basics guide.
Keep close contact with your artisan guildmates and friends if you are hoping to find someone to craft rare items that you are unable to craft for yourself. They need your support. Stay organized and hopefully when you finally do get that rare harvest it will translate into a nice piece of equipment for you. Otherwise, at least, this guide should help you to know what�s really worth saving. In addition, your server's /crafting channel might be a huge help, once you know what you want crafted.
Original article written by Torval from the Antonia Bayle server. Addendums and updates written by Niami.