Artificer Crafting Bot

[BoolZ]

I've tried reading through a few of the thread complaining about how Artificer and the new Dragon Mark make old crafting toons less worthwhile, but couldn't find an answer to my question. So here it is.

Artificer's get +1 level crafting schools at each even level. The Dragon Mark adds up to +10 levels. So a level 20 Artificer with all three marks should be level20 in all schools.

Saying they don't craft anything until they're capped, when they start crafting do they need the xp to go from 20 to 21, level 0 to 1, or 0 to 21 to level up?

Would it be better to start an Artificer, level in crafting without questing to a good spot 20 levels below what you want to make, and then cap the Artificer to pick up those last 20?

And if you have those 'bonus' 20 levels will you even get XP for crafting lvl1 or 2 shards?

[ShogaNinja]

If they get a bonus of 20 levels that's not that big of a deal. As a nearly capped crafter myself I am concerned that some artificer could completely surpass me without paying his dues. It has cost me around 10 million plat in essences and I find that releasing a crafting spec'd class months after the system is released to be a brutal oversight for all those who are invested in the current system like me. To see others shoot past with little effort is a slap in the face of good upstanding, nay - paying, customers.

I am going to guess that if they get the first 20 levels for free then that is no big deal at all. Live and let live. I got to level 20 in like a day. That's no real advantage. If they had to get level 21's experience (as if they were already level 20) then this is also not a big deal. However if they start at 20 but have to go from 0-1 in experience this would average out near cap to probably be only a few levels. I think that if they are going to give artificers some kind of crafting benefit it should be at great cost to their other skills. i.e. they should be nearly impossible to cap due to total gimphood.

I am listening to reports from lamannia and it would seem that preliminary estimates are as follows:
A level 3 artificer who obtained one granted class feat (at level 2)Artificer Craft Mastery gave him +1 to all craft levels. He was level 1 and had done not one iota of crafting. For him to level from 2-3 requires 12xp in crafting which is the same as what a normal character would need to level from 1 to 2. In conclusion it seems like they start with a head start and progress as normal, only 20 levels higher (if they take the dragonmarks). That means for them at level 129 they would need to obtain from level 129 to 130's xp even though they would in fact cap at level 150 by doing so. This is a SUPREME advantage as the difference between say 80 and 100 is night and day and literally double the cost of recipes for the 100. I cry foul on this one. Pay your dues like everyone else has for the last 3+ months. Crafting is not for the weak.

Despite the savings they would obtain in essences, they would also benefit from head starts if they were capped when DDO raises the crafting cap. This means that they will be the first people to make the new recipes which is also uncool. I hope they think up a better way of implementing this class. Real Artificers are supposed to get free wondrous items as granted feats when they level. Give them a choice of a free recipe or something. 5 minutes of free crafting up to a certain level, etc.

[darkrune]

I am listening to reports from lamannia and it would seem that preliminary estimates are as follows:
A level 3 artificer who obtained one granted class feat (at level 2)Artificer Craft Mastery gave him +1 to all craft levels. He was level 1 and had done not one iota of crafting. For him to level from 2-3 requires 12xp in crafting which is the same as what a normal character would need to level from 1 to 2. In conclusion it seems like they start with a head start and progress as normal, only 20 levels higher (if they take the dragonmarks). That means for them at level 129 they would need to obtain from level 129 to 130's xp even though they would in fact cap at level 150 by doing so. This is a SUPREME advantage as the difference between say 80 and 100 is night and day and literally double the cost of recipes for the 100. I cry foul on this one. Pay your dues like everyone else has for the last 3+ months. Crafting is not for the weak.

While I truly agree with you, this is where the dev's will cry "beta" and then disregard whatever is said. Also the reason why I think that crafting will never not be in "beta" because then they have to be accountable for what happens there. As is they only got "well it is just a beta system, we are still working out the kinks."

[Forgeborn]

Artificer craft level boosts, and the dragonmarks, do not affect the actual experience you require to level up to the next tier, so, a level 20 artificer with the full dragonmark of making (thus, +20 to crafting levels), would only require 12 xp to level from level 21, to 22. A normal character on the other hand, would require 140 xp to level from 21 to 22, in addition to needing level those first 20 levels on top of it.
so, doing that, an artificer at level 100 in a school would need: 29738 xp in a single school
And a normal character at level 100 in a school would need: 47638 xp in a single school.
Which is about 18k xp more needed. (please note, the craft xp numbers above are as they currently are on live)

On top of that, the part which makes the 'craft mule' so interesting, is that the artificer doesn't need to level past 1 to start with, and could theoretically level up to level 130 in all crafting schools on the lower level recipes (thus leveling the same as the normal character), and when he reaches a 'high enough' level, he could start leveling/lessering into a full artificer with all marks, effectively gaining a +20 bonus to all his craft skills, saving the need to level those last 20 levels at full/high cost.
(e.g. he has done the lower levels at full cost, like everyone else, but to cap out his crafting skills he would need to spend a ton of essences, which, by lessering/starting to level the level 1 character, he completely skips. This saves him 20 levels worth of essences, which, at the highest levels, is a pretty hefty amount of essences, since at around level 80 or so crafting starts to cost 196 lessers and 18 greaters per crafted shard, making it pretty expensive to craft, while the low levels cost something along the lines of 3 greaters and 12 lessers, making it pretty tempting to level the lower levels the way it 'should' be done, and then take the artificer levels and dragonmarks later on.

Either way, all in all, if you are into crafting for the long haul, and you are not yet level 100+, it might be more cost effective to stop leveling your current crafter, and wait for U11 to hit, and then start an artificer to level up like that. (Or, which is what I am going to do, make a level 1 human character (class doesn't matter) now, and start leveling it, then use a +1 lesser heart of wood to make him into an artificer as soon as they are released and you bought the class) Tr'ing your current crafter in an Artificer with full marks can be done too, but for those like me that have a character as their crafter and have already decided what (s)he would be his/her 'last' life that is not gonna work.

[MartinusWyllt]

...

Either way, all in all, if you are into crafting for the long haul, and you are not yet level 100+, it might be more cost effective to stop leveling your current crafter, and wait for U11 to hit, and then start an artificer to level up like that...

Or TR your crafter, this is my most likely solution...this will mean leveling or TRing another slot to have the convenience of a 20th level cleric, but such is game life.

[BoolZ]

Thanks for the replies all.

[Jahmin]

Saying they don't craft anything until they're capped, when they start crafting do they need the xp to go from 20 to 21, level 0 to 1, or 0 to 21 to level up?

Currently a capped DM Arty in order to lvl from his base of 21 to 22 would need the XP equivalent for 1-2 (that is all of 12 XP).

Would it be better to start an Artificer, level in crafting without questing to a good spot 20 levels below what you want to make, and then cap the Artificer to pick up those last 20?

This remains to be seen and is highly dependent upon what levels you want to craft.

And if you have those 'bonus' 20 levels will you even get XP for crafting lvl1 or 2 shards?

No