Is crafting required?

[Malkosha]

I started over on a new server and as a solo player I need pretty good armor and CA's/Spells to survive. Weapons and armor I've had no problem getting since I can harvest rares and even sell some drops for pretty good money. I usually just upgrade every tier or so and by the time I'm done with one tier I can usually find the weapons and armor I need for the next one. My problem is spells. My new char, a ShadowKnight, is crafting CA's for his personal use. Since I'm not raiding I don't need the very best gear and so far App 4's seem to work pretty good in the leveling dept but hear comes the rub ... I hate crafting. With a passion. I detest it. Terrible way to spend game time for me and its made me sometimes dread to logon. We all know what happens after that. Is it possible to solo level in this game with only App 2's? I might as well forget buying CA's from the broker since they are way too expensive when you can find them (never have what I need) plus when you consider that the cost of decent armor, weapons and CA's ... well ... you need to have the mega bucks in the new (sort of) transmuting economy. I can see spending mega bucks when I'm in the T6-T7 range but before that ... i”m not so sure. So .. how far can I get if I don't craft and just buy App 2 CA's from my friendly neighborhood trainer? Has anyone actually done it? I imagine if I grouped my char with other players that can cover me (and each other) I might be alright, but is it doable as a solo player? Thanks! edited because paragraphs are your friend.

[Korpo]

You can get by with app2 spells, but you'll be pretty gimpy overall. You'll spend more time fighting mobs, you'll die more often, and you'll spend more on repairs in the long run. Since you're killing slower, you're making less money per hour grinding... etc. As for grouping, showing up with sub-par spells would probably feel like "exp leeching" to those that spent more on their toon, you know? If you spend 10s to upgrade your taunt and I spend 2p to upgrade my nuke, and I constantly pull agro because of that, I'm not going to be around long. Your best bet is to find an alchemist and make friends with him. App4 spells don't cost much to make, and a full set of those with a few ad3s thrown in when you find the rares will make you plenty effective for most groups.

[Sanati]

Far from being required, I've been finding crafting a waste of time. It's so easy to make money, and there's so much on the broker for cheap, that I've been considering just ignoring my tradeskills. Ap4s are often being sold for dirt cheap on the broker, like just twice the fuel cost sometimes. It doesn't help that crafting in this game is so boring and takes so much time.

[VizP]

Well just to expand on the above point - crafting in ANY MMO to date has been boring and 'this' game actually has the more interesting system than any other. I am not sure if anyone can come up with a single example of competition that have made it more interesting than this one.

[Ama]

Crafting used to be required to do the high end HQs, but I heard they changed it to the new commision thing.  So now I think you can commision someone to help you out.  With that being the case unless you want to save some gold/plat it's not really required. 

[Malkosha]

Some good points here, esp about grouping and finding that I can't hold agro when needed because of gimpy spells. Thats one thing that has annoyed me about this game ... having to rely on people to upgrade your char but with no controls over what they charge or create. Works great when the population is booming but can be a problem when it isn't. Even so, I hate crafting ... whoops I mentioned that already <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> I never found it fun in any game I've played and so far this is the only game that almost makes it mandatory. Let me see if I can get by without it for a while. Maybe I can pick some stuff up but Ill tell you now, the broker doesn't have much for me at all and what is there costs a small fortune. Then again maybe I need to give it time. Let me try again with a change of attitude and see what happens. Thanks!

[Siogai]

As an alternative, you could lock your Combat XP and farm mobs in the hopes of getting Ad1 drops, either for your class or something you could trade for other Ad1 books from others.  One of the reasons they have alignment-based crafting channels as well as level-range channels is to make things a lot easier on the player who just wants to whack at mobs. Of course, with only Ap2, you're not going to be accomplishing a whole lot.  I solo'd a few instances off RunnyEye this weekend, scoring loot from an Exquisite and an Ornate chest, respectively, and fully credit my success to my mastercrafted gear and Ad3/Master level skills.

[Korpo]

<cite>Malkosha wrote:</cite><blockquote>Some good points here, esp about grouping and finding that I can't hold agro when needed because of gimpy spells. Thats one thing that has annoyed me about this game ... having to rely on people to upgrade your char but with no controls over what they charge or create. Works great when the population is booming but can be a problem when it isn't. Even so, I hate crafting ... whoops I mentioned that already <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> I never found it fun in any game I've played and so far this is the only game that almost makes it mandatory. Let me see if I can get by without it for a while. Maybe I can pick some stuff up but Ill tell you now, the broker doesn't have much for me at all and what is there costs a small fortune. Then again maybe I need to give it time. Let me try again with a change of attitude and see what happens. Thanks! </blockquote>Nobody upgrades your character but you. You have the choice: either craft your own spells (or armor, or whatever), pay what someone else demands for that service, or live with what you have. You put in effort no matter what, be it time in front of the craft table, time grinding cash to pay someone, or time required to kill mobs.

[Sanati]

<cite>VizP wrote:</cite><blockquote>Well just to expand on the above point - crafting in ANY MMO to date has been boring and 'this' game actually has the more interesting system than any other. I am not sure if anyone can come up with a single example of competition that have made it more interesting than this one. </blockquote> I wouldn't call EQ2 crafting interesting. It's a basic crafting system with a tedious and mind-numbing "mini-game" added as a time sink. Horizons and Ryzom both have infinitely more interesting crafting system. You don't need to jam 3 buttons over and over every time you make an item, but in Ryzom you can change the stats and colors on an item by switching around ingredients and applying different modifiers to the actual craft skill. In Horizons you can actually customize how an item looks during the craft process, switching blades and hilts and such, plus you can actually build houses and repair ruined cities using your tradeskills. There's nothing like an entire server coming together and building a bridge or something. EQ2 crafting is very plain, and very painful. I don't think there's any activity in any game that leaves me as drained as EQ2 crafting. Staring at that stupid window and pressing those keys over and over, it's just tiring and not fun at all. Don't play Horizons BTW, it's pretty much dead and now run by a company that will literally steal your money. Real shame.

[Raveller]

<cite>VizP wrote:</cite><blockquote>Well just to expand on the above point - crafting in ANY MMO to date has been boring and 'this' game actually has the more interesting system than any other. I am not sure if anyone can come up with a single example of competition that have made it more interesting than this one. </blockquote><p> SWG.</p><p>Malkosha wrote: </p><blockquote> I might as well forget buying CA's from the broker since they are way too expensive when you can find them (never have what I need) plus when you consider that the cost of decent armor, weapons and CA's ... well ... you need to have the mega bucks in the new (sort of) transmuting economy. I can see spending mega bucks when I'm in the T6-T7 range but before that ... i"m not so sure. </blockquote>The funny thing about the Adept 3s on the broker is that often I find them priced higher than the Master 1s of the same spell/CA. But, I really wouldn't recommend leaving home with Apprentice 2s. You should be able to find someone to make your Apprentice 4s for a reasonable fee if you can't those or the Adept 1 on the broker. (Even with transmuting, Adept 1s drop constantly so there is usuall a good supply of them around.)

[Valdaglerion]

<p>No, crafting is not required. </p><p> If you want crafted items though you have 2 choices - craft or buy them from someone that does.</p>