RANT - Cannith Crafting

[EllisDee37]

Glass Phial...bane of my DDO existence. If anyone out there knows of a relatively reliable place to farm these please reply. I've been around all of the Wiki and forum guides to no avail, it's insane as to how rare this collectable is and it really has turned me off to the game for a bit.

If you're on Argo I'm open to trading.

Glass Phials are Tier 3 Arcane Uncommon and are used for constitution shards. I've done no farming in Tier 3 levels other than naturals, already crafted three different constitution items and I still have 86 glass phials left.

I'll trade you Glass Phials for Fragrant Drowshood (Tier 3 Natural Uncommon) straight up, up to 20 of them. (I went nuts with the Stone of Change rituals over the years, so I had like 2 Fragrant Drowshood when U32 went live.)

[Mofus]

I have to agree with the op, before I was at the top level for craftimg and could make a lot of useful things for my TR's. Now after several years of neglect to the crafting system, they do this. Cant even craft simple things any more. I was trying to craft a fortification ring with feather falling like I hade done before, and not possible any more. I hope they don't wait another 3 or 4 years before making some corrections to this debacle.

[Selvera]

So, you're complaining because you don't have enough collectables after you ignored collectables for years?

I've crafted 5 complete 3-effect level 15 items for my next iconic TR already, (all of which I hope I'll be able to use in many TR's to come), I've also crafted a level 1 ring, a level 10 sword and a level 28 bow, all of those (that are level 10+) with 3 effects (and full augment slots).

Once you have your crafting level up high enough, this is a hellofa lot faster then greensteel, it's a hellofalot faster then ToEE, and much faster then thunderforge. The majority of what had held me back from finishing items earlier was getting the essences to level my crafting up high enough for 3rd-slot effects.

My main problem with collectables in regular questing is that collectable bags are so small, you pretty much need to buy or farm a larger bag to do crafting effectively. (Am I ever glad I farmed a bag before this went live).

Now... to work on that 6 piece level 23 set...

[dunklezhan]

So, you're complaining because you don't have enough collectables after you ignored collectables for years?

I've crafted 5 complete 3-effect level 15 items for my next iconic TR already, (all of which I hope I'll be able to use in many TR's to come), I've also crafted a level 1 ring, a level 10 sword and a level 28 bow, all of those (that are level 10+) with 3 effects (and full augment slots).

Once you have your crafting level up high enough, this is a hellofa lot faster then greensteel, it's a hellofalot faster then ToEE, and much faster then thunderforge. The majority of what had held me back from finishing items earlier was getting the essences to level my crafting up high enough for 3rd-slot effects.

My main problem with collectables in regular questing is that collectable bags are so small, you pretty much need to buy or farm a larger bag to do crafting effectively. (Am I ever glad I farmed a bag before this went live).

Now... to work on that 6 piece level 23 set...

Well personally, my complaints about cannith crafting come to these three points:

• Low level effects existing only as high level recipes
• Bound Purified Eberron Dragonshards being a requirement for every unbound recipe, with no way to reliably get them when running heroic levels.
• Insightful effects all requiring new epic collectibles.

... and that's about it.

And that last one isn't really an actual complaint because it does makes sense! It's just a personal frustration because I don't particularly like playing epic.

The first point is just a silly thing, but it's easily fixed and they just need to tweak it.

My main frustration is to do with my complaint re PED restrictions on unbound recipes.

Tokens are not hard to get. But the point is that:

• Tokens are the only predictable way to get PEDS. However they are also bound and can only be traded in a chest.
• Tokens only come from a very small subset of the game, much of it pay-only content, all of it epic.
• Predictably obtainable tomes which can be traded in for PEDS are all bound.
• Eberron Fragments which can be traded in for PEDS drop 1% of the time from any eberron collectible nodes. Hurrah! That's the answer. Well, no. I've got 5 since updated CC went live, which I don't think is enough to make a single effect to put on something for someone.

Why does this matter? It matters because there's no (predictable) way for a new player who has not reached epic yet to ask me to make them something and then be able to contribute to the cost. I would like to be able to at least ask 'have you got the mats'? and have a chance at occasionally someone saying 'yes'.

So, basically, I have to farm tokens from a very small subset of quests in order to make other people stuff. What's that about?

In short, it really, really does feel like they did not want to include unbound crafting so found as many ways as possible to make it something you can't in reality do. To do that instead of just saying 'we're not allowing this anymore' is very close to cowardice, and it's certainly a mixed message.

The crafting process is way better. The crafting machines are way smoother. But the consequences of the recipe design for me and what I really value from the system, particularly for unbound loot, sucks donkey balls.

And that is the thing that really grinds my gears about the new CC.

There is at least now a market for collectibles, if not crafting services. Sadly, its not the crafters who are going to get anything from that, quite the other way around because people know crafters are desperate for mats so the costs are absolutely insane. I wont' pay 'em, I'll just do without - and continue to grumble that current CC does not make me happy.

[EllisDee37]

My main frustration is to do with my complaint re PED restrictions on unbound recipes.
[...]
Why does this matter? It matters because there's no (predictable) way for a new player who has not reached epic yet to ask me to make them something and then be able to contribute to the cost. I would like to be able to at least ask 'have you got the mats'? and have a chance at occasionally someone saying 'yes'.

The way I see it, new players should be making all their own prefixes and suffixces anyway, and paying unbound crafters to make their ML shards. Why? because it costs way more essences to do it the way you envision it.

It takes around 500 essences and zero collectables to level from 0 to 100, at which point you can make yourself any (scaling) prefix or suffix you like. But you can only make low-teen ML shards, so ask an unbound crafter for those. Just pay essences.

Consider stat shards. They cost 100 essences bound, and are level 100, or they cost 500 essences unbound. Where have I seen that "500 essences" number before? Oh, right, that's how much it costs to level yourself to 100.

EDIT: Let's imagine a new player who reaches level 10 and wants a simple Constitution of False Life belt. Their choices:

Bound Shards: ML10, Constitution, False Life
Highest Crafting Level: 100
210 Essences + 500 to level to 100 themselves
15 Pages Torn from a Research Notebook
15 Runic Parchments
5 Glass Phials
5 Vials of Pure Water

Or pay an unbound crafter:

Unbound Shards: ML10, Constitution, False Life
1100 Essences
30 Pages Torn from a Research Notebook
30 Runic Parchments
10 Glass Phials
10 Vials of Pure Water
2 Executioner Beetles
2 Pale Creepers
4 Purified Eberron Dragonshards

The complaint about them not being able to provide the 4 purifieds is like re-arranging deck chairs on the titanic. It simply doesn't make sense for a new player to pay for that unbound belt under pretty much any circumstances. Unbound crafting is a service for veterans who don't want to level crafting (so they stopped at 100) to get high level ML shards and insightful effects.

Everyone should level to 100, including new players.

[Saekee]

I just miss my ability to make a lesser vamp masterful weapon, then slap on bodyfeeder a few levels later, then +3 enchantment at level 12. My TWF melees sleepwalked heroics with a pair of these...

For veteran builds, heroics are easy anyway with all the power creep, especially with fast healing EPL.

[vampiregoat69]

I noticed 99.99% of everything now is on the ASAH and I can't seem to find anything on the normal AH, I noticed the way of plat is long gone and now everyone uses the **** shards and it makes me mad. Want any tome? GOOD LUCK you better have a butt ton of A.shards cause you will find NONE on the A.H. I searched for many many things on the A.H. just to find nothing, search the A.S.A.H and bam there they were. Makes me so mad they even came out with astral shards.

[dunklezhan]

The way I see it, new players should be making all their own prefixes and suffixces anyway, and paying unbound crafters to make their ML shards. Why? because it costs way more essences to do it the way you envision it.

It takes around 500 essences and zero collectables to level from 0 to 100, at which point you can make yourself any (scaling) prefix or suffix you like. But you can only make low-teen ML shards, so ask an unbound crafter for those. Just pay essences.

Consider stat shards. They cost 100 essences bound, and are level 100, or they cost 500 essences unbound. Where have I seen that "500 essences" number before? Oh, right, that's how much it costs to level yourself to 100.

EDIT: Let's imagine a new player who reaches level 10 and wants a simple Constitution of False Life belt. Their choices:

Bound Shards: ML10, Constitution, False Life
Highest Crafting Level: 100
210 Essences + 500 to level to 100 themselves
15 Pages Torn from a Research Notebook
15 Runic Parchments
5 Glass Phials
5 Vials of Pure Water

Or pay an unbound crafter:

Unbound Shards: ML10, Constitution, False Life
1100 Essences
30 Pages Torn from a Research Notebook
30 Runic Parchments
10 Glass Phials
10 Vials of Pure Water
2 Executioner Beetles
2 Pale Creepers
4 Purified Eberron Dragonshards

The complaint about them not being able to provide the 4 purifieds is like re-arranging deck chairs on the titanic. It simply doesn't make sense for a new player to pay for that unbound belt under pretty much any circumstances. Unbound crafting is a service for veterans who don't want to level crafting (so they stopped at 100) to get high level ML shards and insightful effects.

Everyone should level to 100, including new players.

Certainly good advice Ellis. My point is that under old cannith, it was more expensive but not prohibitively expensive, like the new system. Not only that, whilst I was very rarely given all the ingredients I needed, almost always it was possible for them to give me some or all of any ingredient. And that's something I really valued in the old system.

[GoMeansGreen]

it does seem as though the 'devs' have given up on the idea of attracting new players and just pander to the desires of their standbys

what about the game is appealing to new players?
what have they done new that appeals to new players?
is there any new player who can comment here?

[EllisDee37]

Certainly good advice Ellis. My point is that under old cannith, it was more expensive but not prohibitively expensive, like the new system. Not only that, whilst I was very rarely given all the ingredients I needed, almost always it was possible for them to give me some or all of any ingredient. And that's something I really valued in the old system.

We'll never see eye to eye on this issue. You bemoan the loss of new players needing you to craft things for them because leveling was prohibitively difficult. I welcome the new system largely because it makes it trivially easy for new players to be able to craft themselves their own stuff.

Before the update, anything I crafted for my dualbox account was always made unbound from my main crafter because it was truly unthinkable to try and level a crafter on the dualbox account. That would have been just crazy. After the pass, I spent 400 essences leveling a dualbox alt to 100 and bam, now that account can craft everything it wants for itself. (My main account crafter might supply some high ML shards, but prefixes and suffixes are good to go.)

[dunklezhan]

We'll never see eye to eye on this issue. You bemoan the loss of new players needing you to craft things for them because leveling was prohibitively difficult. I welcome the new system largely because it makes it trivially easy for new players to be able to craft themselves their own stuff.

Before the update, anything I crafted for my dualbox account was always made unbound from my main crafter because it was truly unthinkable to try and level a crafter on the dualbox account. That would have been just crazy. After the pass, I spent 400 essences leveling a dualbox alt to 100 and bam, now that account can craft everything it wants for itself. (My main account crafter might supply some high ML shards, but prefixes and suffixes are good to go.)

I hadn't realised we werent seeing see eye to eye! I don't disagree with you that newcomers can now reach a usable skill quickly and cheaply now, not at all. I've never disagreed about that. Its a perfectly viable approach.

Doesn't change the fact that I enjoyed making things for other players, or that some new and existing players just won't *want* to engage with crafting at all except via means of another player. People who fall into that bracket are now not directly catered for and I think that's a shame and don't understand why it needed to be that way, thats all.

[GoMeansGreen]

well, for some reason they expect you to buy into the entire game concept from top to bottom; or you can just not craft, only use stuff you find, and not TR; to me the TR concept is the worst aspect of this game, but apparently they are trying to make crafting the worst aspect; i don't think they can mess up crafting enough to make it worse than the TR idea

I've accepted TR with the premise that I will be playing through 35 lives, or however many, using the same race for all classes. So, this will eventually give me the experience of having a Warforged Cleric and a Half-Orc Gnome, and so on.

I don't know what to think about the crafting. Just a waste of time and effort I suppose. I don't have to bother breaking down items, just sell them en-masse. 'Add junk to sell queue'. Also, you can sell to the pawn brokers in the marketplace. I think that stuff is persistent.

As a simple suggestion, the bound and unbound items should be the same, except for some material requirement that is relatively easy to get, or just credits/platinum. I had somebody give me 2million platinum just because they needed the space.

and lastly, make some pvp options. why do you want to exclude people who enjoy pvp? they go elsewhere, they don't stick around and just say, oh well, maybe pvp in another life. missing out on income opportunity, Turbine (same with lotro)

[Hostyle]

I noticed 99.99% of everything now is on the ASAH and I can't seem to find anything on the normal AH, I noticed the way of plat is long gone and now everyone uses the **** shards and it makes me mad. Want any tome? GOOD LUCK you better have a butt ton of A.shards cause you will find NONE on the A.H. I searched for many many things on the A.H. just to find nothing, search the A.S.A.H and bam there they were. Makes me so mad they even came out with astral shards.

Agree 100%. With all the duping that went on for MONTHS the ASAH was a great way for Turbine to make a profit off their own mistake. I remember when I saw 1000 dwarven ingots for 25 astral shards.

[Hostyle]

I'm VERY disappointed in how the cannith crafting turned out. It's no longer a part of the game for me because of it's ridiclously difficult recipes.
I used to craft gear for my younglings, not everything but a ring for one, some boots for another, and now it's just impossible.

1) My crafting level is 182 under the new system. In the old, for example, I could make a ghost touch weapon if my char lvl 7 needed one. Now it requires level 250. I did some quick calculations and it costs US$ 652 buying essences alone to get there. US$ 652! And I can't even use the old shard of ghost touch I have made under the old system.

2) The collectables required are too rare. Pulling the resources of all my chars I can make 1 weapon with acid damage. Just 1. If I make 1 ML 5 for a char starting now I just can't make another when he hits lvl 10 or 15.

3) Cannith Crafting should be something for the newbies and occasional players to dab with. Why? Because an elite player already has named items that compete or perform better. They don't need the CC.

4) As a result of 1 and 2 the crafting became totally elitist. My crafter is just no longer viable. Now there are absolutely no crafting for newbies and long gone returning players. Is that the goal? To scare away those who did not play 24/7 in the last few years?

5) With a waning playerbase, playerbase avoiding lower levels and much of the loot going to deconstruction the AH and ASAH are almost empty, making it impossible to find an item to properly gear a newly created char, consequently the game just got harder for newbies.

I'm very disappointed in you, Turbine.

</rant>

1. Have to admit not being able to use your old ghost touch is a bit of a pain.

2. Because there was TONNES of duping all the collectables you need can be found on the ASAH. If pay to win isn't your thing try this guide on the most efficient way to farm collectables: https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...+Rusted+Blades

3. Not true. When you TR you become as well geared as a newbie and Cannith Crafting is a great way for an elite player to gear up their newbie.

4. I think the goal was simplification and to get more revenue from the ASAH as players can now sell their collectables for Astral Shards.

5. How about playing the game and getting your own loot?

[bsquishwizzy]

5. How about playing the game and getting your own loot?

In all fairness - ever tried pulling a light repeater from a chest? Nevermind trying to get a light repeater with an augment on it.

It's frustrating to the point where I may just roll up an Artificer and set my settings so that I only get class-specific loot just to get a blank or two.

[AlmGhandi]

Im still stuck at the point of converting all the essences in my ingredients bags across all my alts... too much clicking and the interface keeps dying.

[EllisDee37]

In all fairness - ever tried pulling a light repeater from a chest? Nevermind trying to get a light repeater with an augment on it.

Can't you buy them from the Hammer & Chain? I thought they sold all weapon types there.

[Assassination]

Agree with all of your points OP. Number 2 (collectibles are too rare) is the one that really frustrates me. I've been playing this game for about 4 years now and I can't craft a @#$$@#$ intelligence item because I only have 3

house sealed letters. 3! Also, most of my toons tend to be dex base (assassins, rangers, recently a ninja) I don't have the ingredients to make 1 dex shard, not 1! That slightly "irks" me....

This is not a system that is going to tend to help new players, think it is aimed more at end game users to craft some uber gear,,,,, but, but, but better gear can more easily be crafted in the Slave Lords Quests!!!

I like how the new cc system works, I think they need to rethink the ingredients... the drop rates... Or most of us will just walk away from it.

[Hawkwier]

Agree with all of your points OP. Number 2 (collectibles are too rare) is the one that really frustrates me. I've been playing this game for about 4 years now and I can't craft a @#$$@#$ intelligence item because I only have 3

house sealed letters. 3! Also, most of my toons tend to be dex base (assassins, rangers, recently a ninja) I don't have the ingredients to make 1 dex shard, not 1! That slightly "irks" me....

This is not a system that is going to tend to help new players, think it is aimed more at end game users to craft some uber gear,,,,, but, but, but better gear can more easily be crafted in the Slave Lords Quests!!!

I like how the new cc system works, I think they need to rethink the ingredients... the drop rates... Or most of us will just walk away from it.

I farmed 15 house sealed letters running Lords of Dust on Epic Casual to the bookcase and pack, with a couple of naturals thrown in for good measure along the way. Took less than 2 hours repetition on Monday morning.

I farmed a total of over 15 types of collectibles, one I needed 36 of, in under 12 hours over Sunday and Monday. I crafted 9 L25 items for my ETR train. That's on top of 4 then 5 more end game items and 4 situational ones too.

Collectibles are NOT any significant barrier that so many seem to make them out to be. I had never crafted before the new system so am hardly an expert. I find it difficult to believe folks are struggling with collectibles. Auction Houses prices are ridiculous, but there is absolutely no need to pay those prices when farming is so easy. Boring and grindy for sure, but easy nonetheless. Hawktopus's excellent thread has all you need on where to look.

I find the limiting variable here to now be PEDs for insightful shards having exhausted my stock of tokens and EDs. But having crafted c20 items, I don't see that as reason to complain at this stage.

Like I said I never crafted before, mainly because I saw little to interest me in terms of benefits, so I'm in no position to judge those bemoaning the fact that the new system isn't as useful, but as the new system is immeasurably more useful to me, given the old one was never used, I am happy with the new one. Just my personal 2cp worth.

Farming collectibles is easy though. House Sealed Letters included.

[Assassination]

I farmed 15 house sealed letters running Lords of Dust on Epic Casual to the bookcase and pack, with a couple of naturals thrown in for good measure along the way. Took less than 2 hours repetition on Monday morning.

House Sealed Letters included.

Crikey! Off to LoD epic casual i go!