w/o vials: How are you leveling Cannith crafting skills?

[Saekee]

When the vials from the free agents existed as a crafting substitute for lesser essences, it was much easier and cheaper to level crafting (I was late to the party and missed out on much of this but took some advantage). You could buy stacks of them for cheap and then craft shards of potential (which only use lessers) to pump up crafting levels. I imagine that there are folks with maxed crafting that were smart enough to do this?

I went to boost my crafting the other day and was able to raise it a few levels (it is around 100 in each school). But I burned through A LOT of materials. I wonder how folks are leveling crafting now. I assume vets are not bothering.

(Please, no rants on how it is useless--I use it in heroics heavily and then move on in epics.)

[Propane]

I took my time leveling up....

After crunching all my "trash" lot for 2 or 3 weeks - I purchased some store crafting XP pots and then had a 10 min crafting marathon.
Be sure to check both bound and unbound shard - I would bounce back and forth between the types to try to maintain 50+ XP per pull.
I also blended in some success boost to craft the higher level stuff earlier.

That being said - I think it took a year or so to get to the 140's (I only play a few nights a week though...)

[Dendrix]

Vials weren't supposed to work.

I just get lots of greaters/lessers, deconstruct everything.
Focus on 1 school at a time.
Always have a Crafting XP potion.
Make whatever uses fewest ing while giving good skill
decinstruct all shards after except ones I will use

[Faltout]

For me, leveling crafting is a long process spanning through many lives.

I have 3 characters, 1 of them my crafter. The crafter goes on crafting bursts (non-stop crafting) about once or twice a life. Before a crafting burst, I make sure I have enough ingredients. I log on to my other characters and send the bag with their collected greater essences. If the essences accumulated on my crafter are about 300 of each greater (most of the greaters anyway), then I am ready to go on a crafting spree.

What I need for a crafting spree:
- Sundering of essences. If arcane are at 350, I'll sunder them down to 250. If they are at 400 while others are at 250, I'll sunder them to 250. Don't have specific rules for sundering, just follow my nose. I make sure though that I won't be left in the middle of the process with no lessers and many greaters or no greaters and many lessers. I just like having all my greaters at about the same number, so that's a big factor to when do I stop sundering.

- crafting success boosters. I will be doing recipes with 50-60% chance of success. I don't want to go through too many failures. Especially at high levels (90-100) where purified dragonshards are needed. I will normally use a booster when a recipe seems too expensive.

- ONE greater crafting xp elixir. Usually that's what I get for completing the crafting tutorial every life. But, once those elixirs were also the Store freebie, so I got 5 from there and now they're down to 4 (since I crafted twice a life). The xp booster lasts for half an hour, so I make sure I'm not interrupted during that half hour.

- Inventory space. First of all, I clear up at least 15 inventory slots. 12 for all the lesser essences. I get the lessers out of the bag before sundering because, if while sundering you exceed 1000, bag will bug. It's best if you have them in your inventory space where stacks can go up to 10000. 1 for the experience elixir(s). 1 for the crafting success boosters. 1 free slot for the deconstruction that comes later. Having more free spaces is better, cause it helps with the deconstruction process later.

- Deconstruction Materials. I need loads of prefix and suffix removals. Usually make sure I have 200 of each (the ultimate removal and the other one)

So, when all that is prepped, here comes the crafting spree:
- Schools. I try to devote about 9 minutes to each school. 9 minutes of crafting and 1 minute of deconstructing. Also, I try to get from 10-20 levels in each school per crafting spree.

- Recipe selection. I select a specific school and select a specific level range (start: 5 levels above me, end: 15 levels above me). I sort the shards by level. Then I skip to the 50-54-60% shards. Arrows and consumables are not to be crafted because they can't be deconstructed later. However, if they are the only viable recipe, go for it. From all those available recipes, I won't go for the most xp, but rather for the less ingredients within the percentage I'm looking for (50-54-60). Once I've selected a recipe, I'll craft it twice or thrice, or however long it takes (even if the recipe reaches the 70%) till a better recipe appears (by gaining crafting levels). Normally, 2-3 shards equal a crafting level. When a crafting level is gained, make sure to clear the ingredient line to see whether a better recipe has appeared with that new level.

- Essences. I try to distribute the crafting load between essences. For example, if I craft many shards with arcane essences, I'll try and find the body ones asap. Even if the arcane are less expensive. I do that because at many levels, the only viable recipes are exclusively from one kind of essence. So, when I reach that level I want to have that essence available instead of having spent it earlier when I could have chosen another less used essence.

- Deconstructing. When a crafting school is done, I quickly move to the deconstruction machine (quickly because xp timer is ticking). I open the ingredient bags and draw out all the shards created (that's where extra inv space comes in handy). If not enough space, I put the essences of that school back in the bag (I try not to leave any stack of lessers above 1000 after crafting) to free some slots. Then I deconstruct the shards to get back some of the essences used to craft them.

Aftermath:
I place the lessers back in the bag and survey the crafting levels gained and how many essences I used. That's important feedback for subsequent sprees as some crafting essences are not used at all in some crafting levels. Also, at early levels I used to be able to level fast with about 100 greaters. At level 110, 300 greaters are almost enough for 10 levels. I need to know when will my next spree will be.

Currently sitting at 110 in every school with my last spree gaining 10 levels only (it was a bit rushed though cause I needed some levels to craft somethng for a guildie)

[Saekee]

For me, leveling crafting is a long process spanning through many lives.

I have 3 characters, 1 of them my crafter. The crafter goes on crafting bursts (non-stop crafting) about once or twice a life. Before a crafting burst, I make sure I have enough ingredients. I log on to my other characters and send the bag with their collected greater essences. If the essences accumulated on my crafter are about 300 of each greater (most of the greaters anyway), then I am ready to go on a crafting spree.

What I need for a crafting spree:
- Sundering of essences. If arcane are at 350, I'll sunder them down to 250. If they are at 400 while others are at 250, I'll sunder them to 250. Don't have specific rules for sundering, just follow my nose. I make sure though that I won't be left in the middle of the process with no lessers and many greaters or no greaters and many lessers. I just like having all my greaters at about the same number, so that's a big factor to when do I stop sundering.

- crafting success boosters. I will be doing recipes with 50-60% chance of success. I don't want to go through too many failures. Especially at high levels (90-100) where purified dragonshards are needed. I will normally use a booster when a recipe seems too expensive.

- ONE greater crafting xp elixir. Usually that's what I get for completing the crafting tutorial every life. But, once those elixirs were also the Store freebie, so I got 5 from there and now they're down to 4 (since I crafted twice a life). The xp booster lasts for half an hour, so I make sure I'm not interrupted during that half hour.

- Inventory space. First of all, I clear up at least 15 inventory slots. 12 for all the lesser essences. I get the lessers out of the bag before sundering because, if while sundering you exceed 1000, bag will bug. It's best if you have them in your inventory space where stacks can go up to 10000. 1 for the experience elixir(s). 1 for the crafting success boosters. 1 free slot for the deconstruction that comes later. Having more free spaces is better, cause it helps with the deconstruction process later.

- Deconstruction Materials. I need loads of prefix and suffix removals. Usually make sure I have 200 of each (the ultimate removal and the other one)

So, when all that is prepped, here comes the crafting spree:
- Schools. I try to devote about 9 minutes to each school. 9 minutes of crafting and 1 minute of deconstructing. Also, I try to get from 10-20 levels in each school per crafting spree.

- Recipe selection. I select a specific school and select a specific level range (start: 5 levels above me, end: 15 levels above me). I sort the shards by level. Then I skip to the 50-54-60% shards. Arrows and consumables are not to be crafted because they can't be deconstructed later. However, if they are the only viable recipe, go for it. From all those available recipes, I won't go for the most xp, but rather for the less ingredients within the percentage I'm looking for (50-54-60). Once I've selected a recipe, I'll craft it twice or thrice, or however long it takes (even if the recipe reaches the 70%) till a better recipe appears (by gaining crafting levels). Normally, 2-3 shards equal a crafting level. When a crafting level is gained, make sure to clear the ingredient line to see whether a better recipe has appeared with that new level.

- Essences. I try to distribute the crafting load between essences. For example, if I craft many shards with arcane essences, I'll try and find the body ones asap. Even if the arcane are less expensive. I do that because at many levels, the only viable recipes are exclusively from one kind of essence. So, when I reach that level I want to have that essence available instead of having spent it earlier when I could have chosen another less used essence.

- Deconstructing. When a crafting school is done, I quickly move to the deconstruction machine (quickly because xp timer is ticking). I open the ingredient bags and draw out all the shards created (that's where extra inv space comes in handy). If not enough space, I put the essences of that school back in the bag (I try not to leave any stack of lessers above 1000 after crafting) to free some slots. Then I deconstruct the shards to get back some of the essences used to craft them.

Aftermath:
I place the lessers back in the bag and survey the crafting levels gained and how many essences I used. That's important feedback for subsequent sprees as some crafting essences are not used at all in some crafting levels. Also, at early levels I used to be able to level fast with about 100 greaters. At level 110, 300 greaters are almost enough for 10 levels. I need to know when will my next spree will be.

Currently sitting at 110 in every school with my last spree gaining 10 levels only (it was a bit rushed though cause I needed some levels to craft somethng for a guildie)

thanks everyone for the responses and Faltout for the super precise breakdown! Definitely worth bookmarking for players interested in boosting their crafting!
I did it the slow way with occasional sprees. This is very tight.

I wish the vials still worked...

[Feralthyrtiaq]

Check recipes you can do @50% or better at both the Bound and Unbound shard devices.

Jumping to Unbound really helps when your XP bottoms out on Bound Device.

[JOTMON]

When the vials from the free agents existed as a crafting substitute for lesser essences, it was much easier and cheaper to level crafting (I was late to the party and missed out on much of this but took some advantage). You could buy stacks of them for cheap and then craft shards of potential (which only use lessers) to pump up crafting levels. I imagine that there are folks with maxed crafting that were smart enough to do this?

I went to boost my crafting the other day and was able to raise it a few levels (it is around 100 in each school). But I burned through A LOT of materials. I wonder how folks are leveling crafting now. I assume vets are not bothering.

(Please, no rants on how it is useless--I use it in heroics heavily and then move on in epics.)

I maxed my crafting levels pretty early on, never used the vials.
Great for crafting low level TR gear, but really falls apart at higher levels.

Once you have crafted a bunch of low level TR gear you end up with a whole of invested time in a crafting system with poor payback value.
Its too bad the crafting system didn't get continued development.

[Theolin]

I just went in once a life at the end, and crafted till the xp per pull got bad
I would bounce between the bound & unbound stations
usually spend about an hour each life
when I was out of essences or the xp was not worth it (50-75) per pull depending on ingredients needed I would stop & TR
after TRing the xp get reset - that is a help
Usually during a life I would get something to help with crafting, some kind of boost of some sort
and all my other toons would pass essences on to one toon

[PsychoBlonde]

I just went in once a life at the end, and crafted till the xp per pull got bad
I would bounce between the bound & unbound stations
usually spend about an hour each life
when I was out of essences or the xp was not worth it (50-75) per pull depending on ingredients needed I would stop & TR
after TRing the xp get reset - that is a help
Usually during a life I would get something to help with crafting, some kind of boost of some sort
and all my other toons would pass essences on to one toon

This is basically what I did with my crafter toon--I'd save all the essences I got until I was just about ready to TR then go and binge craft a ton of junk.

Sometimes (not often) I'd buy essences.

[Stoner81]

Here are some things I found really helpful...

1. Do NOT ever sunder greater essences in to lesser essences, the greaters are much harder to come by and you will get a ton of lessers by disjuncting everything (and I mean EVERYTHING).
2. Tomes you do not need/want you can crunch down in to Purified Eberron Dragonshards.
3. Search both the Unbound and Bound machines for recipes since they can be cheaper in one or the other.
4. Use crafting XP elixers from the DDO Store (P2W nay-sayers can shut up right now!), these things give you a massive boost so make the most of them.
5. I aimed for recipes with only a 50% chance of success because they offered the most XP by a mile.
6. If you have plenty of Platinum then check your trade channels for greater essences you might be surprised at what you get.
7. Stock pile a metric ton of essences and other ingredients so that you can make full use of the time on a XP elixer, it's kinda pointless running out of mats when you have half the time left. My rule of thumb was that whatever amount of mats I thought I needed I would double the figure and then add a third.

Hopefully the above helps.

Stoner81.

[Faltout]

Here are some things I found really helpful...

1. Do NOT ever sunder greater essences in to lesser essences, the greaters are much harder to come by and you will get a ton of lessers by disjuncting everything (and I mean EVERYTHING).

Hopefully the above helps.

Stoner81.

This is true. I did mention sundering though in my post because taking all my loot to a deconstruction device is a pain.

For example let's say I'm running house of death undone and have about 15 slots available in my inventory. The chests in death undone are countless. I mean, 10+ (1 end, 2 from panthers, 1 from matron, 6+ from champions). So, before doing portal opens with the group I don't have time to go to house C and deconstruct while everyone conveniently vendors everything in the eveningstar general vendor.

Deconstructing items, while grants you more essences, is really annoying especially for the other members of the group that see you say "hold on, full inv. Gotta deconstruct and rebuff (with cargo hold buffs)". So, I would not advise anyone to be annoying

Also, getting a ton of lessers from deconstructing means that you can't hold the lessers in one bag (or even 5). And when crafting mats start filling your inventory, that's a bad thing. My non-crafter toons keep only a 12 capacity bag for 12 greater essences. That's it. No lessers. Ever.

[Livmo]

Fixing the vials has made crafting Shards of Potential very expensive to craft and IMO has made the process too cost prohibitive for allot of new players or folks just now getting around to leveling their crafting (post-vial change). It was already labor intensive either way (shards of potential). On both the general forums over time and on the Council I've advocated for the removal of Shards of Potential from Cannith Crafting.

Fortunately I play mostly epics, so I gather mainly greater essences and sunder them to lessers if I need a few to finish a recipe/item. However, I don't sunder greaters to make Shards of Potential. Too expensive IMO. Side note, you will notice the unbound Shards of Potential now cost allot more on AH as a result of the vile fix. I only sunder if I need a few to wrap up an item if need be.

I collect or dump all my green bags in the Shard Bank ingrediant tab (forget actual name ATM). I have the max storage at like 712 or some amount, so I just drag and dump bags (red/green/augment) after a long session.

0-[===>

To gain crafting levels fast make unbound shards. You will get the most crafting XP from this. I like to look for 50-65% red shards to craft to boost my XP and level faster. Also, when I unlock the Cannith favor I buy the cheap crafting XP boosters for cheap at the House C Patron Vendor up top. Combine those with 20% weekend and you can level very fast.

I always take essences and leave no treasure behind, so I can take advantage of crafting weekends and always have some esseneces around. It's a shame to see so many puggers leave the essences behind in chests. Sad, just sad. Cannith Crafting is great IMO and I even use it in epics.

Now after you made these unbound shards to level your crafting XP, what do you do with them? Good question and TY for asking. There are several things to do with them unbound shards. You can sell them on the AH for plat. Or you could go to the Deconstruction Device and sunder them back into some essences to re-use. Another idea is to stock pile them in case somebody needs a shard so you can make their day/night via in-game mail. Yet another idea is to collect them on a toon/alt for if/when you transfer that alt to another server after it's loaded to the hilt with loot and the toon is geared well. You don't need any crafting levels to assemble items with unbound shards. Although you may not have any crafting levels on a new sever, a bag full of unbound shards helps to get out the gate fast in heroics.

Don't use crafting success boosters. Seems to lessen the XP. I only use booster if I really need a shard around 50% for something I'm making. They are cheap as well from the House C vendor once you unlock with favor (50 Cannith favor).

[Faltout]

Don't use crafting success boosters. Seems to lessen the XP.

Are you sure about that?

[Livmo]

Are you sure about that?

Not really and why I listed seems to. I will have to check later on. I can't remember right now, but felt I should mention boosters. If you know the definitive answer, then please list (hehe save me from checking and TY.

[JOTMON]

This is true. I did mention sundering though in my post because taking all my loot to a deconstruction device is a pain.

For example let's say I'm running house of death undone and have about 15 slots available in my inventory. The chests in death undone are countless. I mean, 10+ (1 end, 2 from panthers, 1 from matron, 6+ from champions). So, before doing portal opens with the group I don't have time to go to house C and deconstruct while everyone conveniently vendors everything in the eveningstar general vendor.

Deconstructing items, while grants you more essences, is really annoying especially for the other members of the group that see you say "hold on, full inv. Gotta deconstruct and rebuff (with cargo hold buffs)". So, I would not advise anyone to be annoying

Also, getting a ton of lessers from deconstructing means that you can't hold the lessers in one bag (or even 5). And when crafting mats start filling your inventory, that's a bad thing. My non-crafter toons keep only a 12 capacity bag for 12 greater essences. That's it. No lessers. Ever.

your travelling bag doesn't need your full stacks of ingredients, transfer to a bag designated for crafting and put into the bank.
I carry multiple bags for crafting, and trade up to better bags as they come along.
When my bags start overflowing is when I go spend an hour constructing/deconstructing shards.. which would also work well for pot users so you can optimize your usage with stacks of ingredients.

~ house 12 favor - 100 favor gets you a large bag.. you can get these every TR life and these are unbound.
If you have the points pickup the DDO store bags.. they are btc so make sure to purchase on your crafting toon.

Gargantuan Ingredients Bag
Unique Item Capacity: 500
Stack Size: 10,000

Colossal Ingredients Bag ( not always available , have to keep an eye out for this one when it hits the store.. once I got this baby I tossed every tiny/small/medium bag I ever had on every toon and passed the larges to the alts)
Unique Item Capacity: 1,000
Stack Size: 10,000

[Enoach]

I took the slow and steady pace myself.

For leveling purposes I did the following...

Once a week I emptied my six characters ingredients/collectable bags into a Shard Bag that resides in the shared back account

Now I did not sunder items to get ingredients. I did try out the vials once before they were removed, but that was mainly to get rid of a bunch of vials I picked up pre-fix to Rogue trap making fix and it was a good way to rid myself of them outside of tossing them.

Once a month I went into the crafting area with the character designated to be my crafter and I would craft using a House C Favor bought crafting XP potion. I leveled each School 5 levels one right after the other, repeating the process until I ran out of ingredients to craft with. Then I would deconstruct all the bound shards that I knew I did not need. For the unbound ones I would AH those that I knew would be sold such as Rogue Skills or Alacrity but the rest I just deconstructed.

Now I did manage to find a few good deals on the AH, but mostly my crafting materials came from collecting.

I maxed all crafting levels earlier this year. So probably took about a years time to do it.

[HungarianRhapsody]

Good thread, but I'm somewhat surprised that it still exists.

[Saekee]

Good thread, but I'm somewhat surprised that it still exists.

well, I miss the vials...

[Lemdog]

When the vials from the free agents existed as a crafting substitute for lesser essences, it was much easier and cheaper to level crafting (I was late to the party and missed out on much of this but took some advantage). You could buy stacks of them for cheap and then craft shards of potential (which only use lessers) to pump up crafting levels. I imagine that there are folks with maxed crafting that were smart enough to do this?

I went to boost my crafting the other day and was able to raise it a few levels (it is around 100 in each school). But I burned through A LOT of materials. I wonder how folks are leveling crafting now. I assume vets are not bothering.

(Please, no rants on how it is useless--I use it in heroics heavily and then move on in epics.)

What vials? Explain plz.

[HungarianRhapsody]

What vials? Explain plz.

There used to be an exploit. It's gone now. But it will probably be back eventually. Because Turbine.