Pre-Update crafting clarifications

[Junts]

Answers from anyone knowledgable would be nice.

1: Are shards still bound to account?

During some of the previous iterations, you could move shards between your characters after creating them. Is this still true?

2: What success rates lead to optimal advancement?

Previously, because of near-unlimited tp resources, people were advancing with 40-50% success rate shards. Is this still the best solution for overall efficiency, or is it simply fastest?

[ilhares]

Answers from anyone knowledgable would be nice.

1: Are shards still bound to account?

During some of the previous iterations, you could move shards between your characters after creating them. Is this still true?

2: What success rates lead to optimal advancement?

Previously, because of near-unlimited tp resources, people were advancing with 40-50% success rate shards. Is this still the best solution for overall efficiency, or is it simply fastest?

Based on my experiences:

1. No, they are bound to character, as is any item modified in any of the stations for any purpose (like preparing for crafting).

2. There's more XP for the lesser success rate options, but it no longer lets you attempt it if the success margin is less than 50%.

Maybe they have grander future plans, but making all this stuff BtC has removed 99% of my interest in crafting anything that isn't a GS item. I can't prep a shortsword to pass to my little melee mage, can't double-buff the elemental damage (ala Festival Frost), it's really rather.. bland. The sheer amount of grinding necessary (in all 3 categories of the crafting, Elemental, Divine, and Arcane) are also something of a dissuading factor. BtC should be changed to BtA on the parts that go into an item, and perhaps BoE for the completed product (if they were previously not bound items before deconstruction). Leave some room for a few people who want to go pro crafter.

[Seikojin]

Last time I checked shards were BtA. That was last week though.

[Junts]

Last time I checked shards were BtA. That was last week though.

Could you double-check? I didnt level up enough to make anything of consequence.

[Marten]

Answers from anyone knowledgable would be nice.

1: Are shards still bound to account?

During some of the previous iterations, you could move shards between your characters after creating them. Is this still true?

2: What success rates lead to optimal advancement?

Previously, because of near-unlimited tp resources, people were advancing with 40-50% success rate shards. Is this still the best solution for overall efficiency, or is it simply fastest?

After the first patch to present, shards are BTC, they only current by-pass (bug or otherwise) is crafting on blanks that are already BTA.

Based on my own exp, you can not state this in this way as up to level 35 you may have choices that are at the same % of success with same exp but different amounts of essences used. I personally will be staying with in the 85% range with the lest essences except in those rare cases where it will cost me fewer essences to take a chance.

Hope this helps.

[DANTEIL]

I've been out of DDO for a while but am thinking of coming back to check out Update 9. So my question about crafting is: Will there be an official Dev Diary or something similar to explain the logic behind crafting, how it works and what it does for those of us who haven't been on Lamannia testing it out?

[Junts]

After the first patch to present, shards are BTC, they only current by-pass (bug or otherwise) is crafting on blanks that are already BTA.

Based on my own exp, you can not state this in this way as up to level 35 you may have choices that are at the same % of success with same exp but different amounts of essences used. I personally will be staying with in the 85% range with the lest essences except in those rare cases where it will cost me fewer essences to take a chance.

Hope this helps.

OK, thanks.

[dingal]

I personally will not invest a single second of my time on the crafting system until it's at a bare minimum BTA.

It's absolutely asinine to think I'm going to spend that amount of time and that amount of resources (Yes selling all those trash items adds up) to create items for each character. Imagine Shroud crafting in a world where all ingredients were BTA....horrible.

Great idea Turbine but poorly executed.

Hopefully it changes as they iron out the kinks and then I'll be fully onboard and even willing to spend TP to help level up.

[LrdSlvrhnd]

What *I* want to know is if you can update an item.

For instance, I want to make, say, a +5 Lightning Guard armor of Heavy Fortification. But my character is only L8.

Can I make a +4 armor of Light Fortification... then as he levels up, change it to Medium Fortification, add Lesser Lightning Guard, improve it to +5, etc... or would that require starting over?

[Wurmwood]

It doesnt work that way currently. You have to deconstruct it again, and start all over. Or just use another set of plate to make a blank and make yourself a +1, +2, +3, etc so you have your own little set for lvling up.

[sirgog]

2: What success rates lead to optimal advancement?

Lower success rates are still better, assuming the shards you have the option of making have no value to you.

Craft XP awarded is based on your level (I believe it's 9 + your level in that school), divided by your probability of making it successfully. There is also a penalty for crafting shards that are lower level, or ones you have crafted before.

So if you are level 15, you could craft a level 15 shard (100% chance of 24 XP), or a level 25 shard (50% chance of (24/0.5) - an average, again, of 24 XP). Due to some odd rounding, or me being slightly wrong with the formulae, these figures are sometimes slightly off.

This favors the lower success rates because failure doesn't waste all of the resources invested in making the shard. During the bugged period on Lamannia, the best average advancement came from making 5-20% shards.


Of course, higher level shards mostly require more mats than lower level ones, and this is a major mitigating factor. Cheaper recipes are almost always more efficient than more expensive ones.

[kcru]

What *I* want to know is if you can update an item.

For instance, I want to make, say, a +5 Lightning Guard armor of Heavy Fortification. But my character is only L8.

Can I make a +4 armor of Light Fortification... then as he levels up, change it to Medium Fortification, add Lesser Lightning Guard, improve it to +5, etc... or would that require starting over?

Strip it back to 0 and start over, which I think is a bit much. For CRAFTED items, you should be able to selectively remove one without destroying it. I understand why they don't want that to happen for found items.

[Pfold]

I've been out of DDO for a while but am thinking of coming back to check out Update 9. So my question about crafting is: Will there be an official Dev Diary or something similar to explain the logic behind crafting, how it works and what it does for those of us who haven't been on Lamannia testing it out?

The wiki has most of what folks have been able to gather. I believe most of the info is here:

http://ddowiki.com/page/Full_Crafting_System

More than likely they'll have something posted in the notes tomorrow.
If you missed to FP interview about u9 (very generalized) you can view it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e_d9grY_d8