Collectables for craftng

[Thame]

So when the update happened to cannith crafting I decided to pool resources and craft some items for my arti. 10k+ essences and tons of collectables from 12 characters over multiple lives.
Looked at some recipes for arti gear, essences costs are good. Then I look at the collectable costs and clicked the receipes I would need to pull up how many collectables I had only to discover I only had enough to make maybe 1 or 2 of each shard. So with all my toons and all the past lives I have been through on each of them (and FYI I max out favor each time before I TR for all the goodies) so again all this and I only have enough for 1-2 of each shard?! Why such a huge increase in collectables cost?
SO I crafted the item for him at level 30 for end game content and decide to TR him a few days later after max favor.
MY thought when I TRd was if I add a HIGHER ML shard to scale the crafted items up then I can use those same crafted items and add ML1 shard and reverse the scaling and add higher ML shards as I go. But wait, that doesnt work, and I dont have enough collectables to craft more of the standard items an arti would need leveling up.
If and IF I am lucky enough to find more of the collectables, I will have to craft 4-5 of each and not use the scaling. so craft open lock, int goggles, spot search etc and lock them in at lvls 4 8 12 and 16. But I will never have enough of those collectables to do that and Im not going to spend my day farming collectables on a slight chance I might get 25-50 of a particular one over the next year. Making only 1 more set of each and scaling them up again creates multiple useless item I dont have a purpose for and I wont get the ingredients back if I crunch them down each life.

So anyway you have pretty much destroyed cannith crafting for those of us that TR quite often. If im going to gripe I will atleast add some possible fixes for this
1) create reverse scaling. - I take a ML26 item and add a ML3 shard and it brings the stats back down to ML 3. Just increase the cost of the essences for the ML shards to compensate.
2) Create more places in the game where collectables drop, and stop the stupid common, uncommon or rare BS. If 3 possible collectables can drop make it 33% chance for each one.
3) Start have mobs drop collectables only for in bookshelves or tables, etc
4) Instead of only getting 1 collectable per drop make it 2-3
5) when crunching an item not only give essences but give back 1 of the collectables used based on the prefix or suffix of the item.

They way collectables are implemented under ver2, CC is going to die faster then CC ver 1 did. I like how the new crafting is now streamlined but you make the collectable costs impossible, so before all the fanbois get on here bashing my post, I will no longer be crafting and I am sure I am not the only one who has already said it. I also going to say some seen the costs and decide no at the beginning

[Amroth]

+1

I love your ideas to be able to apply a new ML shard at will (in either direction). Going below ML10 should hide/disable extra slot, and going above should re-order enable it.

I also like your idea to get a few collectables back from deconstruction/preparing.

[elsmoor]

Ok, I have to admit I kind of like the min level shard stuff but the scalable shards are a total joke. I have been collecting bits and bobs for four years - never turned any in, just lugged them around as souvenirs really. Now after five items I am totally out of collectables that create shards of any use. With the addition of more collectables it becomes an even bigger grind than CC version one ever was. I let my VIP lapse because I was becoming disillusioned with the game. the CC pass piqued my interest so I renewed it but now I've used it in anger I can only say that it is actually quite badly thought out.

For example the collectables to create a constitution shard now only drop in levels 11-15. ONLY.

You need to store them up from a past life if you want a shard to use before level 11. Then you can't get any more as you level until you collect 15 more only on quests rated 11-15. And that's the common ones.

If the system isn't adapted to match the suggestion here where it is more tied to minimum level I can see all the work put in to CC ver 2 being a complete and utter waste of time.

Oh - and its quite likely I will lapse my VIP again, never to return.

[Drayfor]

So, here we are with update 32 offering a remodelled Cannith Crafting that on first impressions is absolutely excellent. I think this is a great addition to the game but after years of playing this game and picking up absolutely everything that drops from copper pieces to the most rare of collectables, after a few crafts, I am absolutely spent with my ingredients and collectables and left with a feeling of ‘oh my god, how the hell do I get enough to craft more and increase my crafting level, let alone make some decent gear?’

The AH and SE are limited but with absolutely ridiculous prices that I can’t see how to progress! We have to have a mechanism introduced that allows us to trade more effectively or buy these scarce resources with the vast amounts of what seems to be worthless Plat these days! May I add that I can’t remember the last time I even saw a Tome drop to trade for Purified Eberron shards, let alone get 1 myself.

The game currency is absolutely broken now and it is really spoiling the game for me. I have never contributed to a discussion thread before and started playing in 2008 but felt so compelled to do so on this issue; something has got to be done to allow us to stand a fighting chance to progress. Can someone please tell me what I am missing?

[SuperNiCd]

So, here we are with update 32 offering a remodelled Cannith Crafting that on first impressions is absolutely excellent. I think this is a great addition to the game but after years of playing this game and picking up absolutely everything that drops from copper pieces to the most rare of collectables, after a few crafts, I am absolutely spent with my ingredients and collectables and left with a feeling of ‘oh my god, how the hell do I get enough to craft more and increase my crafting level, let alone make some decent gear?’

The AH and SE are limited but with absolutely ridiculous prices that I can’t see how to progress! We have to have a mechanism introduced that allows us to trade more effectively or buy these scarce resources with the vast amounts of what seems to be worthless Plat these days! May I add that I can’t remember the last time I even saw a Tome drop to trade for Purified Eberron shards, let alone get 1 myself.

The game currency is absolutely broken now and it is really spoiling the game for me. I have never contributed to a discussion thread before and started playing in 2008 but felt so compelled to do so on this issue; something has got to be done to allow us to stand a fighting chance to progress. Can someone please tell me what I am missing?

You're not alone. Many including me share your frustration on the collectibles. Here's some help that I've gathered up reading the forums if you want to make the best of what we've been given, which is what I'm trying to do.

1. You don't need to trade tomes for purified ebberon dragonshards. You can trade tokens of the twelve for them. ToTT can be reliably farmed (epic normal DA).
2. Here is a thread on how to farm collectibles quickly and effectively. dancing_hawktopus started the effort, and others have started contributing
3. Here's a study and recommendations by Tols on the most resource-efficient way to level up in crafting.
4. Here's a handy crafting spreadsheet from EllisDee37
5. Here's an excellent new online crafting planner from ramez7asit4.

I keep referring back to these links so often, I just updated my signature with them.

[dunklezhan]

You're not alone. Many including me share your frustration on the collectibles. Here's some help that I've gathered up reading the forums if you want to make the best of what we've been given, which is what I'm trying to do.

1. You don't need to trade tomes for purified ebberon dragonshards. You can trade tokens of the twelve for them. ToTT can be reliably farmed (epic normal DA). In heroic, tomes are required: there is no reliable way to farm purified eberron dragonshard turn ins if you or the crafter only play or currently can only play (e.g. on a heroic TR train) heroic levels. The collectables which can be turned in (small/medium/large eberron dragonshards) are a straight 1% drop rate from any collectable node, as they always have been, and are not tied to the new collectable tiers.
2. Here is a thread on how to farm collectibles quickly and effectively. dancing_hawktopus started the effort, and others have started contributing. Note that this will not help you with small/medium/large eberron dragonshard fragments which are unbound and the only unbound collectable which can be turned in for purified eberron dragonshards
3. Here's a study and recommendations by Tols on the most resource-efficient way to level up in crafting.
4. Here's a handy crafting spreadsheet from EllisDee37
5. Here's an excellent new online crafting planner from ramez7asit4.

Just for the sake of clarity, in red.

If you only play or currently have to play heroic, you are pretty well shafted other than the almost-but-not-quite-guaranteed +2 tome per life you can trade in (even then, note that the tome is bound, so cannot be passed to a crafter for them to turn in in order to then make you something), and a 1% chance of getting one of the unbound eberron fragments you could hand over. Although, of course, if you have a big stack of small/medium/large eberron dragonshards and you want plat... you'll get whatever you ask.

Point is, even running with a crafter for an entire life is likely to not get you enough purified eberron dragonshards options between you to actually make more than maybe one item.

Only if you and the crafter both run Epic is unbound crafting realistically feasible.

On the other hand, with the collectable tiers now, if you don't play epic you're also pretty much shafter for levelling or making high level crafting because obviousy the top end recipes use a lot of the new high end craftables. There are plenty of recipes for bound crafting which also use PEDS.

Realistically then - to get the most from crafting, you and the crafter are going to want to spend a lot of time at epic level. That's not necessarily a bad or illogical thing. But it does make it very off putting if that's not what you like.

A side effect of this for me has been that actually - I'm spending a lot more time playing epics this last couple of weeks. I dont' want to TR, because I need all that high level loot for crunching, and I of course have hardly any of the new collectables.

If the objective was to boost epic play, mission accomplished. However, I am having less fun, because all the arbitrary epic immunities and stuff continue to seriously annoy me.

[SuperNiCd]

I forgot about being able to trade unbound small/medium/large ebberon dragonshard fragments for purified ones. I would say that the collectible farming strategy has helped me with that in that it attempts to maximize collectible nodes/minute, and even at 1%, several of those have dropped for me while I've been farming.

The main problem I'm having is that some specific collectibles' drop rates don't seem to be inline with what was stated. I'm having this with T3 Lore uncommons at the moment. My efforts have yielded 10 scholarly notes, 10 silver flame hymnals, but only 2 house sealed letters. Not sure if I just happening to be seeking a collectible where the drop rate isn't WAI or if I'm just terribly unlucky.

[Drayfor]

You're not alone. Many including me share your frustration on the collectibles. Here's some help that I've gathered up reading the forums if you want to make the best of what we've been given, which is what I'm trying to do.

1. You don't need to trade tomes for purified ebberon dragonshards. You can trade tokens of the twelve for them. ToTT can be reliably farmed (epic normal DA).
2. Here is a thread on how to farm collectibles quickly and effectively. dancing_hawktopus started the effort, and others have started contributing
3. Here's a study and recommendations by Tols on the most resource-efficient way to level up in crafting.
4. Here's a handy crafting spreadsheet from EllisDee37
5. Here's an excellent new online crafting planner from ramez7asit4.

I keep referring back to these links so often, I just updated my signature with them.

Absolutely brilliant… many thanks for this, this has changed my outlook completely.