Okay, just what am I missing here?

[Seydlitz]

I have a level 20 Arty, and have been sporatically trying to make him into a crafter. I've PAINFULLY gotten him up to 59A/62D/62E. The reason that it is so sporatic is because it is simply mind-numbing to make enough lesser essences to create the shards needed to advance in level from, say, 59 to 60. Most of the stuff I'm trying to craft at this level requires 192 lessers. To get these I can either deconstruct 39 Greaters (that's 39 mouse clicks, at a simply maddingly slow response time) or I can spend real money and buy 200 of the cursed things. Either way - it's physically nauseating when I fail to create a shard that had a 95% success craft chance. And, it gets worse every stinking level. My carpel tunnel just can't handle this!!!!

So, I ask again, what am I missing? Is there another way to get lessers in any sort of decent numbers? As far as I can see, deconstructing doesn't do anything like what I need to keep progressing?

I can only tip my hat at everyone who's gotten to 100+ crafting levels; your patience is astounding!!!

(of course, another part of me thinks that anyone with crafting level > 100 needs to get out MUCH, MUCH more)

[danotmano1998]

So, I ask again, what am I missing?

Try the unbound shard machine.
WAAAY less conversions to worry about.

[Zyerz]

I find Greensteel crafting annoying, but I do it to get decent gear. But to be honest, I havent even bothered to level up more in crafting. I dont have the patience to go and level up (which takes forever to make decent items)

I'm fine with my randomly generated loot I get from quests, and my GS items.

[cdr]

If you're good about deconstructing loot, you'll rarely have to trade greaters for lessers unless you're buying a ton of greaters from other players.

[Jondera]

I generally smash up all the level 4 and 5 stuff I get from loot (unless I'm going to use it for something, like filling an energy cell for GS... or just using it), and sell anything that only has level 3 or lower enchantments. Then use the Unbound crafting device for grinding XP (way fewer lesser essences needed), and I actually have a surplus of lessers slowly building up, without ever sundering any greaters.

[EllisDee37]

So, I ask again, what am I missing? Is there another way to get lessers in any sort of decent numbers? As far as I can see, deconstructing doesn't do anything like what I need to keep progressing?

As others have said, the key is decon. Not only does it generate a non-trivial amount of crafting xp, but it also fills your bag with more lessers than you'll need. Instead of sending everything to a hagglebot, send everything to your crafter.

I decon virtually everything I pull, though the occasional nice item gets put on ah for plat.

EDIT: Also, 192 lessers and you're barely into the 60s? I think you're doing it wrong. My levels are 91/90/85 and I still only level with 10/80 and 18/32 recipes, having never leveled with anything more expensive essence-wise than that. Plus I'm not an artie and have no dragonmarks, so my leveling has required the full slog. At your level I was using 6/32 and 9/12 recipes, IIRC.

[Kyrgan]

It sounds like u are indeed using the un-bound shard machine. I have been starting the grind for crafting levels and I typically like to spend maybe a good hour per day just dinking in the crafting hall. I look over my toons, if one has leveled I look to see if I can add another level of potential to his items. I had a monk go from 7 to 9 in one day, so I spent an hours going through and doing decon on all the loot he picked up, picking a few of his items and reconstructing them. Those +2 Dex Bracers became +4 Dex, etc.

The crafting experience, IMHO, isn't meant to be for everybody. There are some people who will love the mechanics of it, while others will find it painfully tedious. I go from one to the other.

I am in my mid-50s across the board and have found that there are some incredibly useful bound shards for my little 7-9 toons. Since that is all I have, it suites me fine!

As a noob to it all, here are my VERY limited observations:
1. Make a choice - gold or essence from loot. I alternate - one week gold, one week essence. Especially if I see a +5 Studded Leather - oh yeah - I am going to chop that +5 off and put it in the bag. Be prudent and check items if you are curious about what level of essence they are carrying.
2. Make your own goodies for all of your toons. I have gotten to the point that a lot of what I use is self-crafted. Obviously there are exceptions - VoM and Mantle of the Woldshaper, etc.
3. Offer to craft unbound shards for guild mates for free if they provide the essences. I have done this and have raised 2-3 levels in each school because not everybody wants to craft. Offer a free service to low level toons and noobs. "U supply the essence, I will do the crafting".
4. Use the bound shard machine. When I get a good solid fill of ingredients, I go there first because I seem to have better luck with the crafting of non-100% items.
5. Use the unbound shard machine. I use this when I get to a level that I can craft shards that I know I can sell at the AH. I track auctions and observe what sells.
6. Use the AH as a source of essence. I will go to ingredients, enter shard as a search term, and then sort by current price. I then bid on as many shards as I can that are between 20 and 150pp as the system will let me. I have picked up lvl4 shards for under 100pp by doing this. Then I go and deconstruct them, 35pp for 14 lesser good essence - score as far as I am concerned.
7. Follow the purists - get the 5% crafting xp elixirs from house C vendor.
8. Ignore the purists - save your TP, go to the DDO Store and pop for the 25% XP elixirs AND the +20% success boosters. On the bound shard machine my success rate with a 70% chance of crafting is running about 80-85%. (yes, I meant to word it like that :-p) and it nets me between 120-130xp per item.
9. Shred, aka decon, the bound shards you made and don't need. Yes, the exchange rate is kaka. "It takes 6 greater and 18 lesser and I am only getting 4 lesser back?!?" Yup - be happy - from what I have read - decon of shards is a "newer" development.

Now - here is my disclaimer:
I have been playing for about 7 weeks now. My "best" toon is my level 9 (almost 10) 1/2ling Monk. He is my only crafter and he is sitting at only 50's across the board. I actually enjoy crafting somewhat and I make it more tolerable by viewing the shard machines as slot machines you'd find in a casino, just with better odds and the added bonus I won't lose my house, wife, car, and kids if I bet the farm on the nifty +4 Enhancement shard. When I hit that handle and get a payoff on that risky 70% possibility I am man enough to admit I geek out and do a fist pump of victory. Everything I have stated above might be completely wrong and entirely bad advice. It has been gathered by a mere 7 weeks in game with 3-4 of those crafting. Yes, I have a crapload of free time at work. Yes, I take my laptop to work and use the local wifi at lunch to dink around with crafting. Yes I know I am a big dork.

Recommendation: If you have an Android phone or tab, go NOW to the marketplace and search for DDO Sage. It has recipes and a TON of other amazing and useful tidbits on DDO. I have spent time at traffic lights designing and figuring potential of items from crafting using this little thing. VERY cool app.

OK... entirely too long winded... next...

[Matuse]

Ever since Cannith Crafting was released, I stopped visiting the brokers, and the only things I sell to the regular vendors are arrows, spell components, throwing weapons, scrolls, healer kits....basically stuff that cannot be deconned.

Everything else gets deconned. You get useful crafting XP for each item, money, and materials.

Hagglebot's are a dead character concept to me.

[LrdSlvrhnd]

I still visit the brokers, for all those +2-5 items that're useless to me in crafting... +1s get turned into arrows, and I've got enough spirits for the others if I decide to do some quick weapon-crafting.... and the occasional named item.

But anything with a prefix or a suffix gets me some essences!

I generally don't bother actually crafting unless I 1) want to make something specific, or 2) get to the point where my ing bag starts overflowing. Oh, or 3) get enough greater water essences to make an unbound UA shard. I should price FF items...

[EllisDee37]

Everything I have stated above might be completely wrong and entirely bad advice.

Nope, you have it right. The only thing is, you sound like a VIP. If so, then yeah, I agree that saving your monthly 500 tp for crafting is a solid choice. Premiums, however, should not. They need to save every TP for adventure packs.

I still visit the brokers, for all those +2-5 items that're useless to me in crafting...

They generate decon xp when you create an enhancement spirit. Decon xp is invaluable, so I now have more enhancement spirits than I care to count.

[Jondera]

They generate decon xp when you create an enhancement spirit. Decon xp is invaluable, so I now have more enhancement spirits than I care to count.

It should be noted that you can use enhancement spirits for crafting shards of potential.

So you get crafting XP, and you get to save greater essences on making higher-end gear.

That said, I still sell a fair amount of my gear - the stuff with lower-end enchantments that wouldn't give very many essences, mostly. I'm still fairly new, and haven't quite broken into the methods of getting lots of endgame money yet. So the plat from selling stuff helps keep me in consumables and other things.

[Matuse]

I still visit the brokers, for all those +2-5 items that're useless to me in crafting... +1s get turned into arrows, and I've got enough spirits for the others if I decide to do some quick weapon-crafting.... and the occasional named item.

But anything with a prefix or a suffix gets me some essences!

Deconning +1-+5 for enhancement spirits gives Arcane XP. I've found Arcane the most difficult to level, and every drop of XP I can squeeze out is useful.

That said, I still sell a fair amount of my gear - the stuff with lower-end enchantments that wouldn't give very many essences, mostly. I'm still fairly new, and haven't quite broken into the methods of getting lots of endgame money yet. So the plat from selling stuff helps keep me in consumables and other things.

Consumables you can get in plenty from just breaking barrels. You get a pretty decent chunk of money from deconning. 250ish platinum for deconning a level 5 prefix/suffix is likely less than the retail amount you'd get for selling the item intact, but it adds up fast, and you're not just getting the money out of it.

For real money totals, you're not looking at selling junk items anyway (not unless you've made a hagglebot with a 75+ haggle score, and even then...). Real money comes from selling named items and rare components like Large Devil Scales or in-demand epic scrolls.

[Blackwolfe]

I can only tip my hat at everyone who's gotten to 100+ crafting levels; your patience is astounding!!!

(of course, another part of me thinks that anyone with crafting level > 100 needs to get out MUCH, MUCH more)

As someone with 150 in all three schools (horn tooted) I must agree, it does get time consuming, if you let it. I can state that getting into a crafting rhythm makes it easier. Example: I always log onto my crafter right before I log off to decon everything that I have acquired in that gaming session. I can usually skip a day, if I need to, before my shared bank and mailbox starts to get full.

When I was still leveling Blaacksong up in crafting, I would gather large amounts of essences and craft for 15 straight minutes (crafting xp pot booster time frame), usually once a week.

My carpel tunnel just can't handle this!!!!

I am never one to recommend anything potentially against the TOS, but for converting large numbers of large essences to lessers, I have heard that an autoclicker program set to click at precise intervals, for as long as needed comes in very handy. Remember, I am not recommending anything like this.

[EllisDee37]

I'm always running low on greaters with lessers to spare. 45/550 is not an uncommon split for me to have. I bet if you just took to trade channel looking to trade 100 greaters for 500 lessers of the same type you'd get a deal faster (and much less carpal tunnely) than it would take for those 100 clicks.

[jjflanigan]

Consumables you can get in plenty from just breaking barrels

^ That right there is something that all new players need to take to heart. Smash barrels and pick up those potions that drop out of them! (can also get returning thrown weapons and what not from them at higher levels)

[Crann]

Real money comes from selling named items and rare components like Large Devil Scales or in-demand epic scrolls.

Not enough arrive at this conclusion fast enough.

It doesn't even need to be Scrolls or LDS.

Pre-Epic farming, my go to earner was Rainbow in the Dark. Usually takes 9 minutes, usually get a Glistening Pebble, and usually net 50k for it on AH....after they take their cut.

I used to take a half hour every other day or two to run my haggle bard around selling to each of the most favorable brokers, and searching the AH for good buys to try to re-sell. All of that running around and time spent, to net a couple thousand plat.

Now everything without extra value gets deconned. The missing money from selling junk loot is not missed.

Just by deconning and adventuring, I have reached 101/90/94. This is since the first day of crafting, and has included LR'ing my Haggle bard into a Haggle Arty, but I have never bought essences at all, except to make a last minute item that I needed quickly.

It takes some patience, but then again it should. Your developing the ability to create incredibly powerful items.

[chrichton]

As others have said, the key is decon. Not only does it generate a non-trivial amount of crafting xp, but it also fills your bag with more lessers than you'll need. Instead of sending everything to a hagglebot, send everything to your crafter.

I decon virtually everything I pull, though the occasional nice item gets put on ah for plat.

EDIT: Also, 192 lessers and you're barely into the 60s? I think you're doing it wrong. My levels are 91/90/85 and I still only level with 10/80 and 18/32 recipes, having never leveled with anything more expensive essence-wise than that. Plus I'm not an artie and have no dragonmarks, so my leveling has required the full slog. At your level I was using 6/32 and 9/12 recipes, IIRC.

I don't think I have ever seen a 9/12 - can you give an example?

[EllisDee37]

I don't think I have ever seen a 9/12 - can you give an example?

9/12 is the unbound version of a 3/12 recipe. (Unbound recipes cost triple the greaters and triple the exotic ingredients like soul gems and shroud mats, but only cost the same lessers as their bound counterparts.)

[Postumus]

I still visit the brokers, for all those +2-5 items that're useless to me in crafting... +1s get turned into arrows, and I've got enough spirits for the others if I decide to do some quick weapon-crafting.... and the occasional named item.

Are you at 150 arcane? If not, those useless +5 items are worth 5 arcane xp each.

[Postumus]

When I was still leveling Blaacksong up in crafting, I would gather large amounts of essences and craft for 15 straight minutes (crafting xp pot booster time frame), usually once a week.

I think this is the least painful method overall. Continue to slowly level through deconstructing items and crafting the occasional shards for yourself or friends, and when you have a LOT of essences saved up, pop an xp booster and burn through every single essence making shards with high xp/success ratio until you can't make any more shards.

Then start again. You can jump 10 levels at a time that way until you get to around 120s.

I swear this last stretch from 130 to 150 has been the most painful of all.