Crafting Question

[Astarii]

Just curious, now that it has been out for a bit who likes the new crafting changes?

With your answer feel free to briefly provide information such as
-how long you played and/or game experience
-If you used to craft, and if so how much / prior level
-Is it better/Worse/Indifferent
-What do you like better/worse
-Was it what you where expecting

[J-2]

I have played since January of 2015, though I did not really become a crafter until August of 2015.

I spent LOTS of time and essence to get my levels up. I was very near completing my levels when the new update was implemented. (There were 6 shards I was not yet capable of attempting to make.)

I personally feel it is worse now than before.

I like that the lag has been removed from the crafting hall. That is by far the best of the new enhancements.
I dont like the deconstruction gui bug, but thats a somewhat trivial matter.
My main issue is the cost. Cannith essence and the collectable ingrediants are too rare, making the shards too expensive.

Yes, its what I was expecting in the performance category, but it missed totally in the costs.

I would like to see an in game vendor that sells the collectable ingrediants as well as cannith essence for platinum.
It would go a long way to curb the outrageous prices for them on the auction house as well as minimize the amount of farming required.

I kinda wish I hadn't TR'd in November, and would now like to have spent a few months farming cannith essence. I exahusted my supply after only a few items.

All in all, its not a game breaking thing for me. I am at level 269, and will be complete soon enough.

[Astarii]

I totally feel your pain, and agree with everything you've said. Its exactly why I wanted to ask others.

[LeoLionxxx]

I personally feel it is worse now than before.

I like that the lag has been removed from the crafting hall. That is by far the best of the new enhancements.
I dont like the deconstruction gui bug, but thats a somewhat trivial matter.
My main issue is the cost. Cannith essence and the collectable ingrediants are too rare, making the shards too expensive.

Indeed, recepies are now WAY TOO EXPENSIVE, particularly in terms of collectables.

I got into Cannith crafting soon after it initially came out, and was well on the way to maxing out my levels. I used to craft all the time to make bane weapons and skill items. I would help guild-mates put together stat-items to get them going.

I love the way it was changed, to be a much simpler system that lets me easily craft good gear; that part of the pass was fantastic. But now that every recepie requires so very many resources, some of which I can't even obtain at my current character levels, I'm barely crafting anything. Yesterday I wanted to tell my new guild-mates that I was the guild crafter, and that they could shoot gear requests my way, but with all the recepies being so expensive, I felt it more likely I would disappoint them and have to say I didn't have the needed materials.

To get me seriously crafting again, collectible costs would need to be drastically reduced OR a (non P2W) method of obtaining collectibles reliably be added; personally, I prefer the former.


P.S.
For anyone looking to grind out their collectibles, I point you to this handy thread:
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...em-Efficiently

[Mofus]

I have been playing since 2009, I remember when there was no Canith crafting in game. That being said, I like the recipe costs for the old system better, but like some of the new recipes in the upgraded system. For those of us who have been saving collectables for years, it's not too bad in the new system. But if you are a new player or someone who has only been around for a year or so, you may not have many ingredients to craft with. Having to hunt colectables in order craft simple things is not good. I hope they can make some adjustments to the system that make the recipes friendlier to new players.

[J-2]

Yes, that is an excellent thread, and compliments to the poster and maintainers.
However, even the most efficient way can be totally frustrating.

It stinks farming grim and barrett for 4 hours just to get 5 silver flame hymnals.
I did get my 5th one today, and I got enough runic parchments and romantic sonnets to throw myself a ticker tape parade.

[Gremmlynn]

Personally, I like the new costs better than the old, though think they may be a bit high (as opposed to ridiculously low as the old system was).

If this new system was as cheap to use as the old, it would make 99% of the loot dropped in game into nothing but deconstruction fodder, or vendor fodder for most named items. At least until our bags are full and we become plat capped, when looting chests at all would become pointless.

I much prefer a system where we have to question whether a crafted item is enough of an upgrade to be worth the mats. Which may well be what the devs were aiming for.

[skorpeon]

Yes, that is an excellent thread, and compliments to the poster and maintainers.
However, even the most efficient way can be totally frustrating.

It stinks farming grim and barrett for 4 hours just to get 5 silver flame hymnals.
I did get my 5th one today, and I got enough runic parchments and romantic sonnets to throw myself a ticker tape parade.

Yeah I like this comment! I am always after those bookcases!

Still I have been crafting for a few years now, I never did much in the way of unbound crafting.

I find the new system much better for me as now I pretty much use random loot for essences and build sets of gear that all my characters can use.
Lvl 7 set, lvl 13 sets are done, a number of lvl 18 and lvl 21 things a few weapons. I am not an end game player and have only so many hours to spend playing in EU evenings (So I don't do many raids at all and no farming LGS for example).

So I find CC accessible for the casual player like me. Gives me guaranteed items in the right slots that are better than random loot.

I think the system is expensive but much better than the old one as it caters to higher level also, with some nice insightful slots added.

[cru121]

I miss the ability to craft cheap throwaway stuff.

I think Everbright should be easier to craft via Cannith Crafting or in some other way.

I would like to have some kind of collectable trader/exchanger. Perhaps involving Marks of Yugoloth / Mystical Dried Fish etc. Or some kind of once-per-day, allow using Marks / Mysticals to replace one stack of collectables in a single recipe.

[Dandonk]

I'm at 392 in the new system. First, some thoughts on the new crafting.

1) BtA items is teh awesome.
2) Can make good items for most levels. Have made sets for TRing at levels 8, 13, 18 and 23. Also made a couple of level 30 items. Level 4 weapons seem very decent.
3) Collectable costs is extremely limiting, and since effect shards cost the same no matter what level you put them on, this in particular limits newer players who cannot farm high level quests for those tier collectables.
4) Stacking of essences. Since we now have only one essence, even with 10k to a stack I have a fair number of stacks floating around in bags and shared crafting bank.
5) Very limited slot choices. This is extremely annoying.
6) Decon and crafting much much faster. Yay, happy Dan.
7) Minor issue: There's no in-game way to see what you're getting. Sure, I'm making a level x strength item, but... what exactly do I get in terms of bonus sizes? Would it be better to wait a level, or to make it a level earlier for faster access while TRing? Yes, the CC crafting planner is awesome, but for new players it must be daunting.

Overall plusses: Works better and nicer, BtA items are awesome, sub-level 30 power is good.
Negatives: Extremely restricted in slots, new collectables used for many lowlevel/old effects... and what was it you said about power at cap? After seeing the U32 craftable items (+17 stat, +4 quality for instance), I'm not sure what the problem is - those items are extremely powerful, pretty flexible, and don't take a prior investment.

That said, with a loosening of restrictions and a little lower on costs, this could be a good system. As it is, I'll rate it meh.

[Franghasea]

Greetings!

I've been playing since around Update 9. I have always been an avid crafter. Under the old system, I was able to craft everything without being quite capped at 3x150. I did cap before the changeover, however. I was not a named loot player until the game moved into epic levels and crafting fell behind in power. Even then I still crafted niche items. I usually made an entire gear set every four levels, starting with level 1 up to 17, then another set at 20 which used to include the Epic Abishai set, when it was relevant. I am capped at 400 under the new system. The general plan is to craft an entire set for each level 2, 6, 10, 15, 20, 24, 28 for a given alt. For example, a complete set (15ish items including goggles for DD/OL and SE) for a melee cleric at all those levels. To date I have crafted 13 sets, or about 600 shard thus far.

The positives with the new system include:
* Crafting is relevant again and caps at the right power level of 34.
* Removal of audio and lag during crafting
* The inclusion of many new affixes
* The addition of the Extra Slot
* The simplification of shard creation
* The reduction of different types collectables required (no more arrows, strong soul gems etc...)
* BTA instead of BTC


The opportunities with the new system include:
* The lack of a deconstruct all option
* It has been my experience that I never need to farm rare collectables. I do often have to farm uncommon collectables. This is unfortunate for DDO store sales, unless of course they put in an uncommon box, and I felt lazy
* I wish that the crafting levels were server wide for all alts. It's minor but it would be a great QoL if I didn't have to quit the game twice to move over to a crafter then back to the alt using the gear. (I do not alt without completely quitting because of the character swap lag)
* The lack of nameable green bags
* It would be great with we could purchase craftable trinkets from the DDO store that had a green augment slot on it
* The elimination of flexible shards
* Even excluding Flexible shards, the on average 1.5 less slots that a given affix can be applied to as compared to the old system for slotting augments
* It would be great if when deconstructing, having a dissolver already in the machine, when you drop rangen in window to get essences the option was automatically highlighted (Saving clicks). It is wonky and doesn't always work
* Weapons tend to significantly fall behind in power versus named loot as opposed to accessories/equipment. Perhaps needing a second extra slot
* The elimination of the dual augment slot rengen items

A side note about collectable farming
This is amazing: https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...em-Efficiently . Thank you for this I enjoy the mindless farming when I feel like playing DDO, but don't feel like being really engaged. Like when I'm watching hockey. Running Bringing the Light repeatedly doesn't seem a chore that way. Shrug. For me the effort spent farming is well worth the fact that I only have to create the set once, and I can pass it to any alt going forward (DDO store traveling containers that can be labeled and hold up to 20 pieces of gear!)

[Franghasea]

Yes, that is an excellent thread, and compliments to the poster and maintainers.
However, even the most efficient way can be totally frustrating.

It stinks farming grim and barrett for 4 hours just to get 5 silver flame hymnals.
I did get my 5th one today, and I got enough runic parchments and romantic sonnets to throw myself a ticker tape parade.

Greetings! I highly recommend running Eyes of Stone on normal. Yes you have to flag if you aren't already, so pick an alt that isn't TRing. Run into the library and there are 3 potential hymnal giving bookcases, along with two other nodes. I average 1 hymnal every other run. No fighting required. Run you clever boy and rememeber!

Thanx,
Frang

[Kriogen]

New is better then old. By alot. I didn't bothered with old system, but I do with the new one.

Its much easier to levelup.

Items cost more. This is not so good. But as long as I don't craft one-and-done disposable junk, its not that bad. What you craft will last forever. So I crafted 1(one) HP item for all my alts that are at level lets say 10-15, one STR item, etc ... don't need unlimited number of items, just a couple.

Im a bit more on the casual side. Because of that(less play time), I don't have lots (if any) named or quasi-crafted(shroud, slaves) uber toys. With new crafting system I can make items that are usefull, not that far behind.

With combination of new CC, some lootgen items and an odd named items its not that hard to equip you char with solid, not the best, but OK gear even if you are not a 24/7 farmer. New CC plays a big part in this.

Its a good anti-zerg mechanics. Hard to pick collectibles if you are running at warp speed.

Can be a good source of money (collectables). Also a good plat sink.

[EllisDee37]

I love the new cannith crafting, and consider it a massive improvement over the old system. Started playing just before Update 9, and I started using the original Cannith Crafting when it was first introduced in beta. Eventually reached low/mid 140s in all schools, which meant I could craft everything. I'm now level 320-ish, which means I can craft anything bound.

Most of my crafting has been 10-piece gearsets, with 2 named items filling the last two slots. So far I've made the following complete 10-piece sets:

ML10/11 universal melee set
ML20/21 universal melee set
ML34 custom set for my Kensei Warpriest
ML34 custom set for my Evasion Paladin
ML34 custom set for my Tempest Trapmonkey

Plus three sets of trapping gear (goggles of search, goggles of disabling, gloves of open lock, all include insightful): An ML15 set for leveling, then two ML34 sets, one each for the paladin and ranger.

And finally, I've probably made a half dozen or more weapons, ranging from low level undead beaters to ML34 specialty weapons, like ooze beaters. My ranger even uses an ML34 crafted khopesh as his standard offhand weapon, paired with a thunderforged: Force of Aligned w/Insightful Deadly, silver in a red slot, admantine from weapon type and cold iron from fury of the wild. Breaks just about all DR, and at +13 4[W] it's a perfectly viable weapon.

Each time I've crafted a 10-piece set, I've typically had to spend around two hours farming collectables. Obviously, two hours of farming collectables is boring and unfun. However, two hours for a complete gearset is trivial compared to trying to farm up slavers gear, legendary greensteel, maybe thunderforge armor, etc... After two hours trying to farm all that I would barely have made any progress at all.

For me, the killer collectables I always seem to have to farm are:

Archaic Logbooks (mildly annoying)
Blister Beetles (easy enough)
Fragrant Drowshood (annoying)
Ornate Charms (painful)
Pages torn from a Research Notebook (easy)
Silver Flame Hymnals (brutal)

The blister beetles and archaic logbooks aren't much of a problem anymore; it was right after the revamp when they were first introduced I needed to actually farm them. Now having done a fair amount of epic questing I have a decent supply of both. Conversely, I had around 25-ish silver flame hymnals that I've now run out of, and haven't been doing any heroic questing so farming those has become an issue.



Under the old system I used to craft lots of customized leveling gear for each alt. Under the new system I can take care of all four of my melee characters (and any melee past lives on my wizard) using all BTA crafted gear. This is a vast improvement. I recently just sold off or deconed a metric ton of old named gear and crafted items for all of them: sora kell sets, cove hats, mire sets, commendation gear, dragontouched armor, cannith named items (fabricator's etc...), the list goes on. All my character banks are now virtually empty, compared being virtually full before the crafting pass. As in, maybe 20 of 60-80 slots used.

All told I'd grade the crafting pass as a solid A-. It would be an A+ except for the following issues:

• Can't craft "Speed"
• Unbound crafting is so expensive it may as well not even exist
• Static effects are almost universally way too expensive and high level (almost all of them are "new player" effects, like everbright and underwater action)

My alt account is even leveling up a crafter (since unbound is so expensive) and is currently in the 190s. Once I get her to 275 I'll consider her finished, so figure, what, 20-30k more essences? That's fairly trivial compared to the grind in the old system, where leveling a crafter on a dualbox account was near-unthinkable.

[cru121]

for an alt account and heroics, one can craft a surprising amount of good stuff with crafter level 50 or 100. Those are trivial to reach. ML shards can be supplied by main crafter.

[Rykka]

Just curious, now that it has been out for a bit who likes the new crafting changes?

With your answer feel free to briefly provide information such as
-how long you played and/or game experience
-If you used to craft, and if so how much / prior level
-Is it better/Worse/Indifferent
-What do you like better/worse
-Was it what you where expecting

*see join date. I've been gaming for about 35 years and find DDO to be a pretty easy game to not be terrible at.
*The old system was obsolete before I started playing DDO, but was good for creating twink starter gear. I leveled it up a bit (to about 50each) at the end of the first life on my main about two months after I started playing. Was still at about 70 in each before the system change.
*It's a mixed bag. The new system produces gear that is worth using at any level. It's much more useful for making a strong character with basic gear. The utility stuff (static effects) is gated by investment in leveling to 250, I lost a lot of crafting utility with the change. Creating gear for noobs or people that hate crafting is dead. Leveling is pretty easy and straight forward though.
*Better: It's worth crafting. Worse: It's relevance encourages me to farm collectables, which is tedious and boring.
*Nothing useful.

[Rykka]

for an alt account and heroics, one can craft a surprising amount of good stuff with crafter level 50 or 100. Those are trivial to reach. ML shards can be supplied by main crafter.

This is especially true now, as the main account crafter can make unbound ML shards lvl 1-20 without PEDF requirements.

[Ulfo]

Unbound crafting is so expensive it may as well not even exist

It's gravely expensive, correct. But now we can do real unbound stuff, not BtCoE as with old CC.

For the rest I completely agree with you. 8)

[dunklezhan]

I'm actually pretty happy with everything* except PEDS for unbound crafting, which still just makes it feel like Turbine didn't really want to include it at all, quite honestly.

*any remaining typos and bugs go without saying I want fixed, and obviously there are things I'd like to see included like some kind of appropriately balanced/interesting wand/clickie making. But I'm not unhappy without them.

[Lonnbeimnech]

I like it much more. Much simpler. The items are better with a few exceptions.

for example. I used to use a bta moderate fort belt at level 3 and a bta heavy fort belt at level 7 with a ring for false life and a necklace for con, I still have them, but instead I use a ml4 con + false life belt with a green slot for mod fort, and a ml8 con + false life belt with a green slot for heavy fort.

The one down side is that I can't decrease the ml of rune arms by 2.


*It might be worth noting that I had maxed crafting levels before the update.