Recipe Books - The Good, Bad and Necessary

-by Niami DenMother

There have been many changes to tradeskills since the launch of EQ2, and, unsurprisingly, that means things have often changed on the recipe book front as well. The most recent change, with GU38, removed the need to run to expansion zones for your level 51-69 essentials books.

More than just trainers!

Outside each village tradeskill instance (as in, all instances but the ones in North Qeynos and West Freeport) as well as just outside Tunare's Pages in Keletin, there is an NPC with "Crafting Trainer" under their name. This person handles all your tradeskill certification needs (hail them) and also happily sells advanced artisan books as well as all your common recipes through level 50.

Note, however, that they will offer only the books appropriate to the level and class of the person buying the books. When you are an artisan, they will only show you the artisan books. After you ding level 10 in your selected class, they will then offer you your level 10-19 class books as well. Once you ding 20 in your subclass, they will also offer you the level 20-29 books, and so on.

What Do the Numbers Mean?

Ok, so you're staring at these books for sale, and scratching your head over which ones you need first. The first thing to note when looking at recipe books are the volume numbers. For your basic books, the volume number matches your artisan level. So, buying Artisan Essentials Volume 9 when you are a level 3 artisan won't do you much good - you won't be able to scribe it for six more crafting levels.

There's more to knowing which books you want/need than just the volume number, however.

Artisan Essentials

When you speak with the NPC inside the crafting instance on the Outpost of the Overlord or the Queen's Colony (or once you speak to the tradeskill trainer NPCs outside a crafting instance in your home city), you are automagically granted a copy of Artisan Essentials Volume 2 to scribe. For artisan levels 3 through 9, you should either buy and scribe the Artisan Essentials book that matches your artisan level, or quest for the books via the Seeking a Profession tradeskill quest.

But What About the Other Artisan Books?

There are Advanced Artisan books for the level 2-9 range, such as Advanced Artisan Volume 2, that are also sold on the crafting trainers. These books are used only for the creation of rare items, using rare harvested ingredients, so you don't really need to worry about them until you've harvested some rare tier 1 resources.

Level 10 - Now What?

So, you've finished your apprenticeship, and been certified in one of the three main tradeskill classes. (As mentioned above, hail one of the crafting trainers when you are ready for certification.) Now comes the time when you become more limited in what new recipes you can and cannot learn.

For any volume that is level 10 or higher, you can only scribe those specific to your new profession. If you're a Craftsman, this means your first book scribed for your new profession should be Craftsman Essentials Volume 10, and you'll be unable to do anything with Scholar and Outfitter books. (Smart NPC's nowadays won't even offer you books from outside your class, but you never know what you're going to find on the broker and so on, so it is best to make this clear up-front.)

As with your artisan books, your basic recipes will be contained in the "Essentials" books. Any other books with advanced in the name (such as Advanced Craftsman Volume 10), are rare drops, and used only for creation of rare recipes from rare harvests. All "Essentials" (up to and including the RoK expansion books) are available from the "Crafting Trainer" NPC outside your city's crafting area(a).

The Advanced Books

The advanced books, such as the above-mentioned Advanced Craftsman Volume 10, are chest-only drops off mobs of the proper level. This means that you'll be most likely to find volume 10 on a level 10 mob, volume 19 on a level 19 mob, and so on. The "chest-only" part means that if the mob is grey to you, it won't drop a chest, and you're out of luck on getting books from those mobs. (Use a lower-level character or find a friend of the right level to mentor if you feel the need to farm these for yourself.)

Level 36 Bloodlines Spells

The first adventure pack, the Bloodline Chronicles, also included recipes for a special spell/combat art for each class. The recipes, which can be scribed by the appropriate scholar class (Alchemist, Jeweler, Sage), are sold only in Nektulos Forest, up near Timber Falls. Only those who have completed the Bloodlines Chronicles quest series up through a certain point are able to buy the recipe books from the vendors there. Thankfully, the books are tradeable, so those who don't have the expansion, or are unable to complete the quests due to level, can always have someone else pick up the recipes for them. If you are doing a broker search, you are looking for "____'s Study of Ancient K'Lorn Magic" for the apprentice versions, and "Advanced ____'s Study of Ancienct K'Lorn Magic" for the adepts (i.e., names such as "Sage's Study ..." and "Advanced Sage's Study")

Level 53 Bloodlines Upgrades

GU38 added upgraded versions to the old Bloodlines spells. Those who gain ally faction with one of the three Maj'Dul courts can purchase no trade versions of the adept III Ancient Teachings scrolls from a vendor in their court. Chest dropped versions of these recipes will be tradeable.

Other Level 51-59 Rare Recipes

Again, those with ally faction with one of the three Maj'Dul courts can purchase no trade versions of their advanced recipe books (and the level 52 Ancient Teachnings scrolls, where appropriate) from a vendor in their court.

Mob-dropped Recipes: As with other tiers, the Advanced books are also chest drops in tier 6 zones. Additionally, there are many "Ancient Teachings" scrolls for alchemists, sages and jewelers. Each of these scrolls contains a single recipe for a special adept III (called "Marquee" spells). These spells/skills are not available as App II-App IV recipes, so players will be relying on adept/master drops, and their resident spell/skill makers for adept IIIs of these.

Levels 60-69

The level 60-69 recipe books, introduced with the release of the Kingdom of Sky Expansion, used to require running to the KoS expansion to acquire your essentials books. All "Essentials" recipe books through level 69 are now available from your crafting trainer in your hometown. In case it is needed again, here are the details on the KoS locations for the essentials books: KoS splits out the sale of recipe books into different locations based on your tradeskill profession. Since it can be confusing to find your way in those zones at first, here's detailed information (hint: once in the general area, type /waypoint ###, ###, ### Be sure to replace the ### with the proper coordinates listed below):

What About EoF Recipes?

There is quite a bit of ground to cover regarding the recipes tied to the Echoes of Faydwer expansion. Rather than muddle this document up more, I am going to point you to the EoF Recipes Guide.

70-79 Recipes

Your level 70-79 essentials recipes are on the normal recipe book vendors (crafting trainers, guild recipe book salesman, etc). While you can obtain your advanced books from mob drops, you can also faction quest to unlock vendors for them. Your level 70-74 advanced books are sold on the Bathezid and Riliss crafting faction merchants once you have earned enough faction. Your level 75-79 advanced books will be sold on the Danak crafting faction merchant, again, once you have earned enough faction. The books are heirloom, so you should only have to do the faction grind once per account. These vendors also sell some special RoK recipes for every class. More details on factioning: RoK Faction from a Crafter Perspective, then the more recently added RoK crafting dailies.

80-89 Recipes

Your level 80-89 essentials recipes will be buyable, as usual. Your level 80-89 advanced books will be on a different faction for each crafting archetype: