New to Crafting, need help

[Kaeri]

<p>First of all, I have gone over the many guides available for crafting but I still think there is somethign I 'm just not getting. I did the tradeskill tutorial and am now level 9. I am now just trying to make various recipes to get that first time made bonus but it's been taking me several tries for each recipe before finally completing the recipe successfully.</p><p>The problem I'm having is the durability bar droppping much faster than I can keep up. Once it drops into the yellow and I lose my bottom most bar that's it. I haven't managed yet to bring it back up to the green and so I fail. I've seen some talk of just spamming the various skills as needed but I have a feeling that really only applies to higher level crafting. I tried that anyway but it didn't really work. I'm seeing that there does seem to be a slight bump in progress when I use my progress skills but I rarely see a bump in durability when I use my durability skills.</p><p>What am I not understanding here? Any advice?</p><p>Edit: By the way these recipes that I am failing so constantly are green and marked very easy....</p>

[Wasuna]

<p>Well, not sure about the buffs but it used to be that the first set of buffs you got was durability and then at level 10 you got a set of progress buffs. (Or vice versa). This allowed you to click the progress buffs to speed things up when your durbility was fine and click the durability buffs to push it back up when it was getting low.</p><p>Also, you can click the buffs on ever crafting 'round' not just when a reaction comes up. Now, this sometimes makes you miss a reaction but they don't kill you anymore so this isn't so bad. Try and get the tinning of the reactions and then click the progress/durbility buffs as you can between each round to speed up or repair a combine.</p><p>Also, read the buttons you click. One added durbility/progress but used power, one increases durability/progress with a decrease in the other and one increases durbility/progress with a reduction in the chance of success. I like the power one is the best as it doesn't have a negative but it will use your power. The otehrs have negatives to them so work with them and see which you prefer.</p><p>I have all the tradeskill helper things and I pop a power regen totem when I craft so I just click all three on the side I need.</p>

[Shiirr]

<p>I believe the default setup is with 3 durability buttons on the left, 3 progress on the right.  Only one of the 3 of each set has a power cost, but that's also the one with the most noticeable impact.  I find that rapidly hitting 3 buttons per cycle (three-four-five would be the keyboard shortcuts, I think) usually allows me the ability to react to whatever pop-up event that requires attention. You should be able to alter your rythym according to need, ie. if you see durability is dropping, just spam the durability ones, and when the durability bar is past full, spam the progress ones.  And always consume drink to repleneish your power!</p><p>At level 9, talk to the tradeskill counselor, that should bump you to 10 and class selection.  Same at 19.  Buy the basic recipe books from the vendor, and the "Advanced" from the broker.  There is a tradeskill quest available for each tier, one-time only per tier, that allows you to pick a recipe book for free.  Save that for the expensive one.</p>

[Calthine]

<p>May I recommend:  <a href="http://eq2.zam.com/wiki/Understanding_the_Arts" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://eq2.zam.com/wiki/Understanding_the_Arts</a></p><p>EQ2 Traders has good guides too <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Krystara]

<p>There is a rhythm to crafting called ticks. If you start crafting something at the station, after a few seconds you will see numbers drift up.  If you hit your three durability buffs inbetween those ticks, you should get a boost in durability.  It doesn't always work, but you should see the durability stay higher.</p><p>But it has to be in that rhythm or it will make countering the various buffs much more difficult. Those buffs pop on the first beat of the rhythm. Try to make sure you counter that before doing anything else or it will make it harder to create the item.</p><p>Also, if you are already level 9 - talk to the crafting trainer to become level 10. That will help also since I believe that your arts get a bit of a boost at that point. You will talk to her again at level 19 to become level 20.</p>

[Meirril]

<p>The realy simple explination is that your low level counters don't have a whole lot of effect on crafting. Using all 3 durability counters won't build much durability if any. What the durability counters will do for you is slow the loss of durability. Hopefully enough that you complete the item.</p><p>The general guideline is wait and see if you need to counter, if you don't then use all 3 counters to your benifit. At low levels, that generally means +durability counters. I'd skip the -success and -progress counters and just use the -power counter at low levels simply because you can't really afford to loose progress or success chance. Every 10 crafting levels your counters get more powerful. Once you get into the thirties you can start using the -progress and -success counters with a lot more confidence. Even at 20 you can feel a lot more confident in the counter's ability to help you rather than hurt you.</p><p>When it comes to counters and using them as buffs start early and use them often is the rule, not the exception. Once simply making an item gets to be routeen, start playing with the progress counters as well. I generally use 2 progress counters and 1 durabilty counter but I'm also using much higher level counters. At 90 you can complete almost every combine using nothing but progress. Levels help a lot.</p>

[Valdaglerion]

<p>Buttons 1-2 are durability but cost some progress when cast, 3 cost more power but rewards with higher durability gain and no detriment to progress.</p><p>Buttons 4-5 are progress but cost some durability when cast, 6 cost more power but rewards with higher progress gain and no detriment to durability.</p><p>Use 3 & 6 with caution, they will zap your power quickly if you spam them a lot.</p><p>Ticks occur every 6 seconds and you need to watch for an event to occur. Counter it with the correct reaction art (look at the icons for comparison). Using 1-2-3 to counter will give you a boost in durability, 4-5-6 will boost you with greater progression.</p><p>Dont wait for events to occur before using your reaction arts, as you need durability, 1-2-3, need progress 4-5-6.</p><p>Hope that helps gets you started, welcome to Norrathian tradeskilling.</p>

[Kaeri]

<p>This has all been a huge help. I'm still failing but not as often as I was. Sticking just to skill 3 for straight durability has definitely made a difference. Also having a better idea of when to expect complications has been a big help. Thanks alot guys.</p>

[stevenbanks]

<p>I just hit 123 over and over until the first bar fills, countering whenever I need to. Then I use 456 until I finish and counter when needed. Works 100% of the time.</p>

[psisto]

<p>Ah yes, low level crafting. Basically, as was said before, 1,2,3 increase your durability, 4,5,6 increase progress. The first art (I think) costs a little of the other bar, the second art lowers your success chance (that is, the chance of whether you lose a little durability, or a lot), and the third costs a certain % if your power pool (7% I think it was), but has no other negative effects.</p><p>My strategy usually is this: start out with 456, if I get a success (you can hear it, the "failures" usually make a sort of dull "whoomph" sound, and typically you get a red/orange particle effect), I do another. if not, I push 123. Basically at low levels you want your last bar at least 75% full so you have  a good safety margin in the event of a failure. As you craft more, youll get a pretty good feeling for when to push durability or when to push progress. Also, its best to learn to counter all events that pop up, even though the small ones have no visible effect. Later on if you do crafting missions, failing a counter might hit you a bit harder than it does now, so picking up the habit is only helpful</p><p>And dont despair, once you hit 20 youre past the worst, really <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Valdaglerion]

<p><cite>AngZ wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>This has all been a huge help. I'm still failing but not as often as I was. Sticking just to skill 3 for straight durability has definitely made a difference. Also having a better idea of when to expect complications has been a big help. Thanks alot guys.</p></blockquote><p>Do what works for now but this is not a good strategy. You need to balance your durability and progress. Try this . . . </p><p>Hit 1-2, 1-2 one the first couple of ticks, this should keep your durability full. Then use 4-5,4-5, watching for events to counter and also watch durability. When you counter an event, hit a 3 to follow up the counter and you will get a really good boost of durability.</p><p>Just keep playing with it but seriously, dont get used to using 3 and 6 all the time. When you get into rush writs at level 20+ you will end up failing those (and they are a huge help to leveling for the XP they give) because you will be waiting on power regen between combines.</p><p>And seriously, good luck and welcome. Everyone starts out as a noob, how long you remain one is up to you <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Calthine]

<p><cite>AngZ wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>This has all been a huge help. I'm still failing but not as often as I was. Sticking just to skill 3 for straight durability has definitely made a difference. Also having a better idea of when to expect complications has been a big help. Thanks alot guys.</p></blockquote><p>It gets easier as you level up, don't worry!</p>

[EQ2Player]

<p>Once I kept failing on a recipe over and over during the first 9 levels of training. And, I had several high level crafters so I couldn't figure out why either.</p><p>I realized I had mistakenly dragged a progress icon over to its durability counterpart so the two were switched. This was causing failures.</p><p>Long-shot that this would be the scenario you're facing, but just to make sure--hover your mouse over each icon in the crafting window to ensure the 3 left are durability based, and 3 right are progress.</p>

[Shiirr]

<p><cite>EQ2Player wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Once I kept failing on a recipe over and over during the first 9 levels of training. And, I had several high level crafters so I couldn't figure out why either.</p><p>I realized I had mistakenly dragged a progress icon over to its durability counterpart so the two were switched. This was causing failures.</p><p>Long-shot that this would be the scenario you're facing, but just to make sure--hover your mouse over each icon in the crafting window to ensure the 3 left are durability based, and 3 right are progress.</p></blockquote><p>[Removed for Content], and here I thought I was the only one who did that. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Calthine]

<p><cite>Shiirr@Blackburrow wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>EQ2Player wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Once I kept failing on a recipe over and over during the first 9 levels of training. And, I had several high level crafters so I couldn't figure out why either.</p><p>I realized I had mistakenly dragged a progress icon over to its durability counterpart so the two were switched. This was causing failures.</p><p>Long-shot that this would be the scenario you're facing, but just to make sure--hover your mouse over each icon in the crafting window to ensure the 3 left are durability based, and 3 right are progress.</p></blockquote><p>[Removed for Content], and here I thought I was the only one who did that. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>Oh heck no <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  Did you know you can right-click the crafting arts bar (while it's active) and lock it?</p>

[Shiirr]

<p>I do now, thanks. <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  Never tried it while active.</p>

[MurFalad]

<p>The swapped buff is a awkward error to find, one tip I would recommend though is to make sure that you lock the tradeskill skills anyway, because every so often you might find that you are about to use a progress buff for example, but right at the same time an event happens.</p><p>If the buffs are not locked then you cannot do anything about it, but if they are locked you can keep the button pressed down and drag off the cast bar, it then tells you that you cannot drag the tradeskill but does not activate it.  That gives you a second chance to select the correct counter to the event.</p>

[Kaeri]

<p>While you're all being so helpful let me veer on to another oddity I've run into. After speakign to the trainer to become a lvl 10 woodowrker(craftsmen?) I had a list of books to buy from the trainer. Having no clue what the books did or which ones to buy I just bought them all 1-10. I saw they all gave me some recipes but when I went back to the wooworking desk it seemed most of the recipes required Alder which as I understand it is a rare...do I not get any new recipes that do not require rares?</p>

[Shiirr]

<p>Ah, those are the Advanced <insert trade here> Books.  You can get them from drops; they're mob loot.  Check the broker.  The majority of them are cheap.</p>