From Vanguard Wiki
Vanguard crafting is a
turn-based mini-game which relies on skill and strategy for success.
The crafting system is designed to be a viable and fully-fleshed game experience in itself. While interdependent with Adventuring and Diplomacy, players do not need to level these other spheres to advance in crafting. Nor will it be necessary for crafters to spend most of their time harvesting to acquire the materials necessary to advance.
[edit] Trades and Specializations
The three crafting trades and the six specializations are:
- Blacksmith - Horseshoes, expendables (runes), harvest tools, fasteners/bindings/mast mounts for houses/ships, bolts/arrows/thrown weapons, diplomacy tools, metal bardings
- Weaponsmith - Metal weapons (swords, daggers, axes, spears, metal blunt, metal monk weapons)
- Armorsmith - Metal (heavy) armor for defensive fighters and clerics, shields
- Artificer - Expendables (stone carvings for invis, invis vs undead etc), house panels/beams, ammunition, diplomatic gear
- Outfitter - Harvest clothing, expendables (leather talismans and cloth bandages), sails and rigging for ships, thatches and window covering/pane for kojani/threstan houses, ammunition, diplomacy gear
- Leatherworker - Leather (medium) armor for offensive warrior/shaman/disciple, saddlebags, handwraps, leather bardings, crafting armor upgrades (leather: gloves, boots, and aprons)
- Tailor - Cloth (light) armor (aka robes) for mage classes (incl Bloodmage), bags, crafting armor upgrades (cloth: shirts, pants, and headgear), cloaks
There are a couple of items that cannot be crafted: masks, parrying daggers, and bard instruments are examples.
In the future a fourth crafting trade will probably be added. No ETA is known.
Players can choose one trade. When they hit level 11 in it, they can specialize through a special quest. The trade themselves offer a number of recipes that both specializations share, such as horseshoes for both kinds of blacksmiths.
[edit] Switching Specialization
Dropping the specialization for the alternative, such as making a weaponsmith an armorsmith, makes you lose all recipes of your specialization. That will be a huge loss on higher levels in the case of dropped recipes.
You will, however, keep your level and skill levels, and the recipes of your trade.
[edit] Switching Trade
Dropping a trade for another is possible, but makes you lose everything - you will be reset to level 1 with 0 in skills, and will have to repeat the crafting starter quest to get back to level 3.
[edit] Attributes
The crafting sphere knows four attributes:
- Problem Solving: affects remedy actions. All remedy actions take this stat instead of one of the others as base attribute.
- Reasoning: affects utility actions. Utilities are consumed during the crafting process and have to be replaced constantly by buying them anew.
- Ingenuity: affects station actions.
- Finesse: affects tool actions. Tools are fixed items. Every trade has its own set. An initial set can be bought from the merchant, but on higher levels more valueable versions are available.
One gets +7 on all attributes every levelup, and during gaining the next level, one gets another 4 points which can be spent freely.
[edit] Skills
Each crafting trade has a number of skills, including two skills associated with each of the two possible specialization. Skills are separated into refining and finishing skills, each used exclusively for that variant.
While the names differ, the skills are always set up the same:
- Refining Field Skills:
- Refining Action Skills:
- Finishing Field Skills:
- Finishing Action Skills
The maximum base skill level in any skill is 10*level. Gear and buffs might add above this value.
Every levelup, one gets 24 points to distribute into both groups of action skills. One gets 10 points for the single refining skill, and 20 points for the finishing field skills. Therefore the opposite specialization class skill should always be zero (before gear), as otherwise the other two cannot be maxed. Not having the field skills maxed results in hefty penalties for craft jobs of same level.
[edit] How to configure your crafter
In choosing gear, attribute distribution, and skilling, the following facts (and some rumors) are known:
- As a general rule of thumb, one should try to get all attributes and skills to 10*level. Values above this seem to add less, while values below this give a greater malus.
- Attributes contribute about 60%, while skills contribute about 40%.
- Unlike attributes, skills affect both progress and remedy actions, thats why many people prefer raising skills over raising attributes if they have to choose.
- On the other hand, both attributes and skills are capped - over a certain value, they dont have any more effect for the current level.
- The base skills value before gear and buffs decide what special actions you have available. Choosing the right skill values and then selecting the gear to get balanced values again is an important part of successful crafting.
- Naturally one should focus a bit into the most important steps. Tier 3 adds a second tool step, tier 4 adds a second utility step, and tier 5 adds a second station step to the crafting process. For example, utilities are of highest importance during tier 1 and 2, while beginning tier 3 tools become very important. After that point station actions get much more powerful.
- Station skill controls the chance for complications. There is however always an unavoidable minimum chance.
- Many people prefer to leave Problem Solving at 75% of the values of the other attributes, because it is used so much less often and has therefore so little influence on success rate.
- Tool quality affects tool actions. People who have good tools can leave their finesse attribute and the tool skills at lower values, compared to reasoning/utility and ingenuity/station.
- The general skill for refining as well as the trade and the specialization class skill for finishing do never give a bonus. However, they give a (strong) malus if they are too low. The required level for them is 10*level of recipe. Maxing this skill to be able to craft recipes of your level is therefore very important.
[edit] Preparation
Before the crafting process can begin, the crafter must have four necessary things: a recipe, a crafting station, component materials and tools in an equipped toolbelt. It also helps to be wearing crafting gear, but gear is not a requirement for success.
[edit] Recipes
The recipe, presuming you are an appropriate level to use it, defines a set of actions which must be performed. Recipes can be obtained from trainers, through quests, by experimentation and possibly as drops.
Once a recipe is obtained, it must be mastered. When the recipe is mastered, other recipes may be unlocked.
[edit] Crafting Stations
There are 3 types of crafting stations: refining, finishing, and assembly. Refining and finishing stations are only for a certain trade, while assembly stations dont specialize further. Therefore, in total, there are 7 different types of stations.
[edit] Component Materials
The ingredients required for crafting recipes fall into two categories: expendable crafting utilities and components. Utilities are vendor-purchased items (for instance, Cleaner), while components can be resources obtained through harvesting or supplied by a city through a work order, or material refined in a previous crafting session.
The tools of a crafter's trade, such as the blacksmith's hammer, the artificer's chisel, or the outfitter's needle, are the final item necessary for crafting. Just like adventuring weapons, these tools can have different qualities and value, and crafters may even create their own tools. Tool quality will be an important factor in the outcome of the crafting process.
Other equipment, while not part of the 'vital four' of the actual crafting process, certainly has the potential to significantly affect the outcome. The tool belt, for instance, may alter how many tools the crafter can have ready during the crafting process, while other equipment might grant bonuses to abilities.
[edit] Crafting Process
For a step-by-step outline of crafting, please see Crafting Process.
[edit] Advancement & Groups
Advancement does not explicitly require interaction with other players, however creating complex and powerful items and learning special things will require interaction.
[edit] Experience
It will take a player approximately as much time to reach the maximum level in crafting as it would for a player to reach maximum level in adventuring. (This may have been a stated goal, however as things stand, xp gain takes 3-4 times as long as adventuring.
Generally work orders are the primary means of gaining crafting experience, although experience is earned the first time a regular recipe is completed.
[edit] Work Orders
A work order is a crafting commission from taskmasters in cities and, more importantly and with more beneficial rewards, outposts. There are also special, hidden taskmasters without a label which give a bit better workorders with higher rewards, to lowlevel crafters. Above level 25, cities stop giving work orders altogether, and the player is forced to travel to various outposts.
Work orders give crafting experience, faction, and money. Single work orders have nothing else, but sets, which require three items to be made, and batches, which require five items to be made, also give a "goody bag" reward. This item contains all kinds of things, most importantly its the only source for better crafting gear and tools. For batches which have been made to A and which are of a level that has dropped recipes (Tier 3, or Tier 2 for outfitter), it also has a chance to drop one of the special recipes. In the beginning of the game, it was also the only way to get ultra rare harvest, but nowadays only rare harvest drops, if at all.
Items crafted for selling to players are not made by work orders. They will require the crafter to obtain the necessary materials themselves - including requiring to get the recipe.
[edit] Levels and Tier
Crafting Recipes are split into 5 tiers:
- Novice (Level 1 - 10)
- Amateur (Level 11 - 20)
- Apprentice (Level 21 - 30)
- Initiate (Level 31 - 40)
- Journeyman (Level 41 - 50)
- Artisan (cannot be reached, but there are some resources for that level which are used in very special recipes)
Every ten levels, provided you have enough continental faction, you may take a tier quest to qualify for the tiers above novice. Completing these quests will allow you to learn new recipes.
[edit] Continental Styles
Thestra, Kojan, and Qalia each have their own continental style. A player will learn recipes of their own continent's style, but if they wish to learn to craft using the style of the other two continents they must travel there and learn from various trainers to understand the other styles.
To learn Thestran styles, one must travel to New Targonor. To learn Kojanese styles, one must travel to Tanvu. And lastly, to learn Qalian styles, one must travel to Ahgram. On higher tiers, and depending upon profession, different trainers have to be sought out. Additionally, the trainers for ship and house ingredients are again located elsewhere.
They also need to do workorders on the other continents to gain enough continental faction. More specifically, to gain access to all normal recipes, you need 100 continental faction per tier; to gain access to boat and ship recipes, you need 500 continental faction for tier 3, 2000 for tier 4, and 5000 for tier 5.
[edit] Dropped Recipes
The new system to get the essential recipes not available from the standard crafting teachers is Masterwork Sigils. There are 3 recipes per tier and specialization (except Blacksmith on Tier 3, where they get only 2) available this way. You can get and hand in the quest for the recipes at one of the three NPCs in New Targonor, Ahgram, or Tawar Galan.
- Blacksmith
- Rare Metal Horseshoes (Blacksmith, Tier 4+)
- Metal Runes (Blacksmith, Tier 3+)
- Metal Weapon Upgrade (Weaponsmith, Tier 3+)
- Metal Armor Upgrade (Armorsmith, Tier 3+)
- Artificer:
- Carvings (Artificer, Tier 3+)
- Stone Focus Upgrade (Mineralogist, Tier 3+)
- Stone Weapon Upgrade (Mineralogist, Tier 3+)
- Wood Focus Upgrade (Carpenter, Tier 3+)
- Wood Weapon Upgrade (Carpenter, Tier 3+)
- Outfitter:
- Leather Talisman (Outfitter, Tier 3+)
- Leather Armor Upgrade (Leatherworker, Tier 3+)
- Leather Crafting Gear Upgrade (Leatherworker, Tier 3+)
- Cloth Armor Upgrade (Tailor, Tier 3+)
- Cloth Crafting Gear Upgrade (Tailor, Tier +3)
[edit] Obtaining and spending Masterwork Sigils
Masterwork Sigils are obtained the same way that was used before for Recipe drops. One has to finish a batch work order of tier 3 or higher, all five items to grade A (75% or better). On handing in, one has the chance to get a Sigil drop.
There is also a very small chance to get a Gold Masterwork Sigil drop. These can be directly traded for one recipe.
Most sigils drops are however a single or two Silver Masterwork Sigils. One needs 8 Silver Sigils to buy a recipe of the current tier, 6 for the tier one below your current one, and 4 for recipes two tiers lower.
That means if one waits until one has reached Tier 5 before handing in any Sigils, one has only to get 54 Sigils for all recipes (50 in case of Blacksmiths). If one doesnt wait, one has to get up to 72 Sigils.
Additionally, if one does two crafters of the same Trade, such as a Mineralogist and a Carpenter, one can skip over Sigils one already has on the first of them. So a secondary Blacksmith needs only 18 Sigils, while secondary Artificers and Outfitters need 36.
Handing in the Sigils will also require an additional item that has to be bought from an Exotic Crafting Merchant. The item for T3 recipes costs 5 gold, for T4 15 gold, and for T5 30 gold. There is also a quest given to get these extra items, but either this quest is nonexistent, defunct, or has simply not been found.
[edit] Mob dropped Recipes
All other recipes, previously also available from doing T3+ batches to A grade, are now dropping from mobs instead.
The original patchnotes hint which mobs do drop these recipes: 11/29/07 - Majordomo Djarn, High Lord Obsiderru, and Karujin Gulgrethor have all found some time to take up crafting. I wonder what new goodies they might drop.
The recipes in question are:
- Gemstone Jewelry Upgrade (Mineralogist, Tier 3+)
- Cloth Bandages (Outfitter, Tier 3+)
- Leather Weapon Upgrade (Leatherworker, Tier 3+)
- Ammo Case (Leatherworker, Tier 3+)
Obviously, Leatherworkers need the most mob dropped recipes, while all Blacksmiths and Carpenter dont have to worry about those at all.
The Tier 2 Ammo Case is now directly available from normal crafting teachers. Before it was the most valueable and seldom recipe in the game. But as Ammo Cases currently have no level limit anymore, nobody cares about anything lower than the Tier 5 Toxophilite's Ammo Case whichs recipe does drop from Majordomo Djarn in the center building of Rahz Inkur.
[edit] Group Projects
Complex designs, meaning currently ships and houses, require multiple crafters to complete. More specifically you need a Mineralogist for most parts of a house, and a Carpenter for most parts of a ship, and the final processing; but also items such as fasteners from any blacksmith, and items such as sails from any outfitter.
Also, for upgrading, all crafting specializations need items from other crafting specializations, such as the armorsmith who needs cloth bolts from an outfitter.
[edit] Multi-sphere Interaction
Crafters seeking to make high quality goods will need to rely on other adventurers/harvesters for quality resources (work orders aren't enough). The influence of diplomacy in crafting is however limited to recipes and basic components for diplomacy items.
With the introduction of the Ancient Port Warehouse raid dungeon, this has changed a bit. Maximum level diplomats are now required to obtain one of the ingredients needed for the APW quested armor.
[edit] Enchanting
While crafting more complicated items (weapons, armor, jewelry, also some consumeables), additional properties can be added to them by adding enchantments during the crafting process. This is possible through special utilities (catalysts), and through rare harvest.
The most usual way to create these items is having to craft refined items from the harvest resources, then craft a secondary finished item from the refined items, and then combine both refined items and the secondary finished item into a primary finished item. Three of these four necessary steps can be improved, but the refined items used for crafting the secondary item cannot be improved.
After these steps, the final product can be improved with rare or ultra rare harvest, in a separate step called upgrade. These recipes also need a specific refined item from a different crafter specialization - for example, armor smiths needs cloth bolts from tailors for their upgrades.
Enhancing catalysts are called dust (for tier 1 and 2), powder (tier 3 and, in case of attuning, also tier 4), shards (yes, plural - tier 4, and there are no attuning shards) and crystals (again plural, tier 5).
The following enhancements are possible:
- Attuning catalyst. These are always green. These are applied during the refining step. Applying attuning catalysts results in a blue (uncommon) item instead of a green (common) one, and is necessary to apply any other catalyst. This is possible from tier 1 on.
- Resonating catalyst. They are blue to orange. These are applied to the primary finishing step, where the attuned refined items and the secondary item are combined into the final item. This is possible from tier 2 on.
- Focussing catalyst. These are always orange. These are applied to the secondary finishing step, which creates an additional input item that is added at the end of the primary finishing step to the final item. This is possible from tier 3 on.
- Rare harvest resources. Applying a rare requires a secondary item ("attachment") from a different crafting profession. From tier 4 on, you also need the extra refined item being of rare type as well. Rare harvest does exist from tier 2 on, and upgrading with it makes the final item yellow (rare).
- Ultra rare harvest resources. They are completely the same as rare resources, including that the secondary refined harvest has to be rare (but NOT ultra rare) from tier 4 on. Ultra rare harvest exists from tier 3 on, and the final item is orange (heroic, also called ultra rare).
- The upcoming raids come with new mechanisms to create red (legendary) or, even harder to get, purple (relic) items. These items will be useless in the beginning and require special, rare drops from raids to be enabled.
Warning: if you bring your item to 100% quality, there is a chance that it becomes rare (yellow) instead of uncommon (blue). Such an item can no longer be enhanced further.
Not all enchanteable items following these schemes. Jewelry, for example, only buffs a single stat (or gives a resistance) on all tiers, where the stat in question only depends upon the cut of the jewel. Harvester tools and Harvester clothing may use rare materials, but cannot carry any enhancement utility whatsoever. Horseshoes need 2 ores, from Tier 4 on those have to be rare ones, and can be enchanted with a same tier orb or sphere of pure matter.
Attuning Dusts (tier 1 and 2) can be bought from exotic crafting merchants found in most central cities. For all other catalysts, workorder drops, deconstructions, and very rare drops from mobs are the only input. Green items deconstruct to one attuning catalyst, blue items to one or two resonating catalyst, and yellow items to one to three heroic resonating and focussing catalysts.
In a step by step description:
The most common way to enchant an item during refining is to use Attuning Dust as a Catalyst. When you're selecting your components for a Refining recipe, if you have some dust that can be used to enchant that particular material, a new category "Catalyst" will appear in the list of crafting components. Selecting the Attuning Dust (or Powder, or Crystal, on higher tiers) you wish to use will place it on your work table. During the crafting process you will have only one chance to apply this Dust, if you don't apply it, the dust is not used, but the item does not gain the enchantment. This opportunity comes after you've completed Stage 2 but before you've done your first action in Stage 3. As people often miss this single chance, theres a macro command /craftingaddsecondary to fix it during Stage 3. Be careful when enchanting during the refining process as the resulting item may not be usable in the recipe you were hoping to use for finishing ! For example, it is not possible to craft heavy armor with a +Vit enchantement.
[edit] Finishing Enchantments
On tier 2 and higher, you can find a more powerful magical item (resonating catalyst) that can be used to add an additional enchantment during the final item creation stage. The process is identical to applying enchantments during the Refining phase. You can stack enchantments by adding an enchantment to during refining and then using those materials to make a finished piece that you also enchant for an extra powerful item. In full analogy, from Tier 3 on, the secondary finishing component can carry focussing catalysts.
[edit] Upgrade
If you added an attuning catalyst, the final item is blue. If you have a rare or ultra rare harvest, the required upgrade recipe (which, from tier 3 on, is a drop from workorder batches and cannot be bought from the instructor), and the required secondary refined item (fixed for your class, and must be rare from tier 4 on), you can perform an upgrade. This is just another normal processing, which has to reach grade A. If you fail to meet the later requirement, you will loose both the rare harvest and the blue crafted item. The difficulty of this process is equal to a medium workorder on the level you got the upgrade recipe, i.e. 14 for t2, 24 for t3 etc. Lamaze Chime Garden
Playtex Drop-Ins NaturaLatch Silicone Nipple - Slow Flow - 2 Pack
[edit] More Information
Salim Grant (Silius), the Sigil designer responsible for the crafting sphere, created a thread on the official Vanguard forums where he has answered many questions and explained in depth about the crafting system. Genda over at Vanguard Crafters has also done some fantastic articles on crafting in Vanguard.
[edit] Creating unique items
Don't know where to put this... Maybe smb. can sort it in?
Crafting has a great level of customization, through the use of materials such as attuning dusts as well as their level of quality. If a crafter desires a Grade A final item, they may have to use more expensive components to help them if they're aren't quite good enough to handle that item difficulty. Occasionally, a person may get a chance to turn the item they're creating into a unique item with a special opportunity, which opens up interesting situations for a limited market of rare crafted items that cannot be created on purpose. You'd better be on the good side of the better crafters on your server for the chance of bidding on one of these rarities!
(Source
The riches of Vanguard #38)
[edit] Crafting Commands and Macros
Certain commands and macros can be used during the crafting process. However, like other aspects of Vanguard, the crafting process cannot be automated.
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