Ding 810 ! [Archive] - EQ2 Forum Archive @ EQ2Wire

EQ2Magroo

02-22-2010, 03:59 PM

After more crafting than any sensible person should ever see in their lifetime, I can now emerge from the gloom of my guild hall and venture back out into the world of Norrath with all 9 crafters maxed at level 90. Where did everyone go ? Hello ? Does anyone have a plaster for my finger please ?I'm not actually sure why I did it, but I think I mostly did it because it seemed like a good idea at the time. Although upon reflection I think it's mostly because I was drunk. That doesn't explain why I didn't stop when I sobered up though. Unless I've just been permanently drunk the past 6 days ? Overall it wasn't as bad as it sounds (who am I kidding ?) and I did actually venture out to do some exploration now and again when the grind got too much. For those who are interested, here's a bit more info: I crafted entirely in my guild hall. The hall has Tradeskill Recipe Merchant, Fuel Merchant, Rush Order Giver, Broker, Harvest Depot, Guild Bank and the 3 Harvest Gatherers. Some of the characters had XP potions still from previously, and all of them started out at lvl 80. They all started out initially with zero vitality, but whilst I was levelling the first few, the rest were gaining vitality. All XP was gained by initial pristine combines / rush order writs / single combines / crafting requests from other players. No XP was gained from the SF tradeskill quests as I only completed this once I hit 90. I didn't go anywhere near the Isle of Mara instances. Woodworker This was the first character to level mostly because it's my main and I need to make arrows. After battling with Sony's suppliers to get a license key to get into the game (3 hours wasted there!) I finally managed to get into the game but there were no T9 raws on the broker, so I levelled to 83 using just T8 rush order writs. After a couple of hours my guild harvesters had returned with some T9 supplies so I moved onto creating the T9 recipes. I then bought up everthing I needed from broker and finished off doing 76 initial T9 pristine combines and 66 T9 writs for the remaining levels. Overall it took about 8 hours of work. Jeweler After getting semi bored with the adventuring (mobs seemed very easy to solo, but the lag was horrendous making it even less fun) I decided to head back into the safety of the guild hall and work on my crafting some more. I chose Jeweler next for the Scout spells as my intention was to go play my Ranger again in a bit when (if) the lag calmed down. This was fairly easy to level, and I did a mixture of pristines and a total of 33 T9 writs. Whilst levelling there was quite a demand from other players for the lvl 84 Mastercrafted Jewelery, which looks to have fairly decent stats on it, although it's strange that it's 84 and not 82. Alchemist The third character I levelled was also done for adventure reasons - I need the poisons! As a scholar it was simple to level, and only needed 18 writs. It was at this stage the alcohol kicked in and I thought "hey, wouldn't it be a great idea to have all 9 crafters at 90 within a week?". For some reason I still can't understand, I thought the answer was "yes". Sage With three lvl 90s under my belt I thought I'd go for the quickest class to level so that I could get that extra bonus up to 40% for the remaining classes. True to form, the Sage took only 3.5 hours to level all the way to 90 using only pristine combines - no writs required. I even had a bunch of recipes left that I didn't even bother scribing. If you want an easy class to level, this is the one to pick. Weaponsmith I was expecting this to be difficult, but it was actually much easier than my Woodworker for example. There were quite a few recipes, and I had hoovered up as many cheap 'Ethereal Material' as I could find from the broker so I could complete the additional 'imbue' combines. I hit lvl 90 with an additional 26 writs. I made a couple of MC weapons, but they're still sat on broker going nowhere. Interestingly I got the disco on all the recipes from 84+ which kinda shows how little interest there is in the class if nobody had bothered going beynd 84 in the time it took me to level 4 other classes and do a bunch of adventure stuff. Carpenter Despite this class getting a lot of love this expansion, the standard recipe books don't contain that many recipes. There were only 76 recipes that I completed for pristines, so I also had to complete 52 writs to hit cap. Provisioner This was another easy, cheap and quick class to level. Lots of recipes and plenty of raws nobody wanted, and only need 14 writs to top up the pristine combines. All of the items that I made went straight to junk vendor to recover fuel costs. Armorer It was at this stage I started to go crazy <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /> This took a lot of tedious grinding and needed a lot of potions to get to the end with only 31 writs. Took about 8 hours like the Woodworker, maybe a bit longer. Tailor A lot like the Armorer in lack of recipes and general slowness. Not a quick class to level when your vitality runs out. A Note On "...Insight" Events After reviewing the logs for all my combines, I've noticed that the rate of "...Insight" events varies between the classes. I've come up with 3 explanation for this 1. Different classes have different chances of receiving the events 2. The sample size is too small to come to any conclusions 3. The way you craft can affect your chance of getting one of these events Originally I sure Answer 2 was the right one, but I am beginning to think more and more that Answer 3 is the correct one. It would certainly make sense as when these events first came out we were told that we should go "warm up" with some easy combines first to trigger one of them so that we would have the bonus for that tricky rare combine. Now that crafting is much easier, it's not worth doing that, but I wonder if there's logic in the code somewhere for it to do this (although it wouldn't be the first time the devs were just messing with us i.e. "yes, frogloks are in game" <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" />) So for example: Alchemist - 820 events countered, 14 Insight events - 1.70%Provisioner - 667 events countered, 11 Insight events - 1.65% Sage - 807 events countered, 9 Insight events - 1.11% Carpenter - 1411 events countered, 16 Insight events - 1.13% Armorer - 1558 events countered, 11 Insight events - 0.70% Woodworker - 1423 events countered, 9 Insight events - 0.63% Weaponsmith - 981 events countered, 6 Insight events - 0.61% Jeweler - 1463 events countered, 6 Insight events - 0.41% Tailor - 2056 events countered, 13 Insight events - 0.63% Looking at the Alchemist compared to Armorer, it received 3 more Insight events, whilst actually having nearly half the number of events to counter. I deliberately did more combines on the Tailor (single combines rather than writs) which allowed me to get a bunch more events (although really slowed down the levelling !). When you compare the Tailor to the Alchemist/Provisioner it looks very bad. Co-incidence ? Streaky RNG ? Or is there some code in there for example that modifies your chances based on the number of events you have countered successfully or some other factor ? Maybe the hidden "lucky" stat that we all have ? <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /> Unfortunately my Armorer doesn't have a recipe for Tin Foil Hat, so you'll need to supply your own. A note on "...Flawless" Events The Weaponsmith and Jeweler both had 3 of these. The other classes all had just one. Roughly what I'd expect. A note on "...Innovation" Events Only had one of these, on my Jeweler and got a nice shiny rare Kaborite cluster for it. Guild Writ XP Overall I finished roughly 270 writs and this have me a full guild level from 52 -> 53. Advanced Books I completed the tradeskill introduction quests on my Woodworker and the dailies until I had the 10k faction and then bought my Woodworker Advanced recipes from the faction merchant. For all of the other classes I just bought them from the broker. It didn't actually cost that much more from broker, and some people were selling the recipe books for as low as 4 or 5g each. Stuff I Learned If doing this again, I would definately change the order of the classes. Optimum speed/XP use would seem to be: Sage -> Alchemist -> Jeweler -> Provisioner -> Weaponsmith -> Carpenter -> Armorer -> Tailor -> Woodworker Those first 5 classes are quickest/easist to level and would allow the slower levelling classes to have built up some decent vitality by the time you got around to them (plus the 50% XP bonus would help a lot too) If you're a Weaponsmith, having a stock of the imbue materials really helps as you get to more than double up your available recipes. Other Stuff I Learned I won't be doing this again at the next level cap raise ! Things That I Like About Crafting In SF - Writs are now every 2 levels. This makes finding recipes and sorting out hotbars much easier. - SF adventure/craft facton split so that you have to craft to get the crafter items. - Instant death during the part of the Quel'ule quest - Daily quests allow you to raise faction without grinding - Multiple tradeskill factions with certain classes having an "advantage" for certain factions Things I Don't Like About Crafting In SF - Daily quests have no alternative if you want to gain faction quicker or just have some spare time on your hands - Daily quests when the non-core faction NPC gives you quest even if you can't complete it. This just says sloppy/rushed design/implementation to me. - Lack of crafting tables at various cities in SF. I don't buy the lag argument for this. Even if it's true, it would have been nice to have a vendor with no-zone portable crafting stations. Not a biggy though as I always carry about tinkered tables anyway. What's Next ? I've still got to complete the introduction quest on 8 of the crafters, level SF faction on all of them, top up their harvesting skills, level my transmuter and tinkerer and work on adorning, grab all the faction recipes, make myself a few hundred thousand arrows, and craft whatever people need. Oh, and I get the feeling that annoying Qho character hasn't drowned yet and may be brewing up a new quest real soon.....and then think about maybe working on raising my adventure levels... All in all, plenty to keep me going ! And FinallyIt seems there is no achievement for having 9 different crafters at 90. Apart from a straight jacket that is.

Caethre

02-22-2010, 04:25 PM

<cite>Adeyia@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote>I won't be doing this again at the next level cap raise !</blockquote>(( Betcha you will ! <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> ))<cite>Adeyia@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote>And FinallyIt seems there is no achievement for having 9 different crafters at 90. Apart from a straight jacket that is.</blockquote>(( I think your suggestion is the best one!Well done on all those though <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> ))

Saev

02-22-2010, 04:25 PM

<cite>Adeyia@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote> And FinallyIt seems there is no achievement for having 9 different crafters at 90. Apart from a straight jacket that is. </blockquote>LOL.Nice work, even if it is somewhat obsessive-compulsive. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" />

Crickett

02-22-2010, 04:46 PM

<cite>Adeyia@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote>And FinallyIt seems there is no achievement for having 9 different crafters at 90. Apart from a straight jacket that is. </blockquote>I just didn't want to "quote" the whole thing.Please send me information on the coffee you drink, and if your "chief cook and bottle washer" is free now, please send her my way <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />andWOW! Grats!

Deveryn

02-22-2010, 06:25 PM

Wow. That's ridiculous. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

Mikai

02-22-2010, 06:35 PM

<img src="/eq2/images/smilies/385970365b8ed7503b4294502a458efa.gif" border="0" /> wow......Did you sleep at all the last week? and if you did, were your dreams frought with the characters you play, their hands worn down to bloody stubs, threatening to squeeze the very life out of you, using any means necessary?Pretty sure my tailor is [Removed for Content] with me right now and I've only gotten her to 84 so far.

Valdaglerion

02-22-2010, 07:23 PM

Grats. I am curious how much you spent on supplemental materials since we all know how little the harvesters bring back in a 2 hour period and how easy it is to chew through the materials when grinding writs.

xeyda

02-22-2010, 07:30 PM

Wow.Well done, and my sympathies. Funny read, though, and lots of good info. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

EQ2Magroo

02-22-2010, 07:53 PM

<cite>Artemiz@The Bazaar wrote:</cite><blockquote>Grats. I am curious how much you spent on supplemental materials since we all know how little the harvesters bring back in a 2 hour period and how easy it is to chew through the materials when grinding writs.</blockquote>I've kinda lost track to be honest but I would imagine that on raws and advanced books I must have spent about 200PP or so. I'm know others have spent the same, maybe more.Also, I've bought a lot of raws just because I could in case they become more rare. For example, I bought a bunch of roots for 50s each which seemed a lot at the time. However, they are currently selling for 2g each so it looks like a bargain now not that I will sell them. I have 20,000 titanium ores already as they are very cheap so why harvest what you can buy for peanuts ?Rough estimates I've earned about 150PP in profit so far, so am only about 50PP down overall compared to release day.I don't really play the game for money so it's not a big conern for me. As long as I have enough to run my guild hall and keep food on the table for the alts then I'm happy <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />I was very dissapointed with the harvest NPCs, the amount they bring back is way too small even with just me in the guild. I can't imagine how a full guild would find them useful at all.

Momerath

02-23-2010, 03:58 AM

<cite>Adeyia@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote>2. The sample size is too small to come to any conclusions</blockquote>This. If you want a statistically significant value to 2 decimals, you need about 10,000 events in each tradeskill.

Wullail

02-23-2010, 04:26 AM

Mad , sorry , you're totally mad...But grats!

Domino

02-23-2010, 05:15 PM

Good grief. Congratulations! But yes, I think we need to find you a straightjacket... <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

Dessellion4

02-23-2010, 07:39 PM

Good grief indeed. I thought I was daft with two so far - Woodworker and Jeweller. Grats you mad mad person.