Everything you wanted to know about crafting

[GuntherBovine]

This is a guide for a new player to maximize their crafting experience.

Contents:
* Why craft?
* Starting Crafting
* The Crafting Process
* The Types of Crafting
* Crafting Levels and Crafting Experience
* Useful Low Level Recipes
* Making my first crafted item
* Making +1/+2/+3/+4/+5 items
* Choosing quest rewards
* Have a crafting plan
* When crafting, think long term
* Second craftng session
* Third crafting session
* Getting to Level 12 Elemental
* Getting to Level 12 Divine
* Getting to Level 12 Arcane
* Crafting Plan to Level 33
* Enchantment levels, Minimum levels and Maximum enchantment levels
* Next crafting session
* Looking at weapon crit crafting options
* Yet more crafting
* Better crafting planning

[GuntherBovine]

This is a darn good question. From the DDO's Crafting Guide:

Here are a few things you can do with House Cannith eldritch devices:
* Customized equipment including weapons, clothing and trinkets!
* Liquidate your inventory down to more easily storable (and somtimes even more valuable) components!
* Create items with more power...and lower minimum levels!
* Easier access to uncommon magical effect combinations
* Enhance the inventory slots of your choosing

For the most part, a lot of those bullets are redundant. I think a new player should craft because:
* Because the items you craft are Bound to Character (BtC), they have a minimum level typically 2 levels lower than the corresponding item you would buy from the Auction House (AH)
* You can create items that fit a specific need that would rarely or never be seen on the AH such a Charismatic +2 ring of Light Fortification
* Crafting is a long-term project to create really powerful items and you might as well start early

There are some excellent reasons to not craft:
* It costs a lot of money
* It is really grindy
* You can get better equipment by selling essences and buying items off the AH

I am crafting because I enjoy a bizarre style of play (almost completely self-found, see here for more). I have created a new toon Gunthep and I will describe his crafting journey in the rest of this guide.

[GuntherBovine]

Step 1 - Find your raw materials
Here are the raw materials you will find that you need for crafting:
* Greater essences
* Items to deconstruct
* Items to buff through crafting
* Dragonshard fragments
* Collectables

Greater Essences
At some point when you pop a chest, you have a chance of getting a Greater Essence. I first started seeing them in The Cerulean Hills. Greater Essences are tradeable and can be bought from the AH.

Items to Deconstruct
Here is what you will be deconstructing in the Crafting Hall:
* Weapons with a prefix or suffix
* Armor with a prefix or suffix
* Clothing
* Jewelry
Deconstructing those items will give you Greater and Lesser Essences. You have to deconstruct lots of items to have enough essences to craft something useful. Don't deconstruct items that you want to use as a blank for buffing through crafting! See the next section for more details.

You can also deconstruct weapons/armor with just a bonus (Masterwork, +1, +2, +3, +4, +5), but you rarely need to deconstruct those items and you will be better off selling the vast majority of those that you find.

You can't deconstruct the following items currently:
* Named items such as the Rugged Belt
* Arrows
* Bolts
* Darts
* Shuriken
* Throwing Axes
* Throwing Daggers
* Throwing Hammers
* Throwing Knives

Items to Buff Through Crafting
These are weapons, armor, clothing and jewelry that you have found. For weapons and armor, it can be a plain item (e.g. a club) or a Masterwork item. For clothing and jewelry, I use items with a wimpy prefix or suffix that won't yield much in the way of essences like a Ring of Bluffing +1. I have seen items ready to buffed through crafting ("Craftable") in quest rewards and Craftable trinkets are very nice as I think that is the only way to get a Craftable trinket.

When you prepare an item for crafting, any bonus, race restriction, prefix and/or suffix is removed from the item. However, some attributes fo the items aren't removed. They are:
* Any guild augmentation slot
* Material type (Adamantine, Byeshk, Cold Iron, Darkleaf, Densewood, Flametouched Iron, Mithral, Silver)
* Previous eldritch rituals
* Permanent damage

So as you find items, keep aside items with guild augmentation slots and useful material types that won't yield much if deconstructed to use as blanks for crafting.

Dragonshard Fragments
Every shard recipe calls for either Khyber Dragonshard Fragments or Siberys Dragonshard Fragments. They drop in chest and smashables (crates, vases, etc). You can also buy them from the AH.

Collectables
Some recipes call for collectables such a Deadly Feverblanche. You can find collectables in most quests and I highly recommend getting every collectable in every quest you run. You can also buy collectables from the AH.

Gunthep's Finds
Gunthep runs the usual Korthos quests and finds the following items useful for crafting:
* Necklace of Bluffing +1
* +1 Cold Touch Heavy Crossbow
* +1 Fire Touch Shortsword
* 22 Siberys Dragonshard Fragments

Step 2 - Deconstruct some items
Get some money
Dump your trash. Read this to know how to smartly sell the items you have found.

Get a bag for your crafting stuff
* Go to The Marketplace (it is up the hill and to your left)
* Take the South-West Market Gate to The Twelve Enclave
* Follow the path to the building in the distance
* Enter the building
* Turn right at the T and go through the door
* Talk to Jeanselme Brucetius, who will give you a Small Ingredients Bag
* Double-click on the Small Ingredients Bag, click Gather and check Auto Gather
* Do the same for the Small Collectables Bag and the Small Gem Bag you should have gotten when you got off the boat at Stormreach

Go to the Crafting Hall
* Retrace your steps back to The Marketplace
* Take the East Market Gate (which is in the Northeast) to the House Kundarak Enclave
* A little to the right of straight ahead is the Crafting Hall. Go in
* Listen to the music and thumping in the background. You are going to hear a lot of this
* At this point, you can go right or left. The left (North) side has a bank and the right (South) side has an AH, but otherwise they are the same

Buy deconstructing materials
* Each side of the crafting hall has 7 niches. Go to the furthest North or South niche and talk to the vendor there
* Select "I would like to purchase deconstructions materials"
* Buy 5 each of Lorinda's Ultimate Remover and Parfett's Leading Dissolver. These are the deconstruction materials that get consumed in the deconstruction process

Deconstruct some items
* Face the exit of your crafting section and go to the niche to the right of the exit. Over the niche is a picture of a shield being broken up
* Click on the machine there
* If your dissolver and remover are in your Small Ingredients Bag, get them out and put them in your inventory
* Eventually, the machine will tell you whether you need the remover or the dissolver to get the essences from the item and what essence you will get when the item is deconstructed
* Clicking on your choice (say Mind Essences) will automatically pull the dissolver or remover into the machine interface
* Gunthep deconstructs the Necklace of Bluffing+1 with the remover and gets 2 Lesser Mind Essences and 1 Greater Mind Essence
* Gunthep deconstructs the +1 Cold Touch Heavy Crossbow with the dissolver and gets 3 Lesser Water Essences
* Leave this niche and go to the machine next to it (clockwise)
* The easiest thing to do is open your Small Ingredients Bag and take out all of your essences

[GuntherBovine]

Crafting is a four-step process:
1. Acquire essences
2. Make a shard
3. Prepare a blank to receive the shard
4. Fuse the shard to the blank

1. Acquire essences
I discussed this earlier and Gunthep deconstructed some items to get some essences.

2. Make a shard
In this step, you combine the essences that you acquired in Step #1. To make a shard, you must follow a recipe. Each recipe requires lesser essences and most recipes require greater essences of the same type as the lesser essence. In addition, all receipes require either Khyber Dragonshard Fragments or Siberys Dragonshard Fragments. Lastly, some receipes require a collection.

Leave the niche with the deconstruction machine and go to the machine next to it (clockwise). The easiest thing to do is to open your Small Ingredients Bag and take out all of your essences. Click on the Bound Shards machine and drag one of your essences into the {b]Your Ingredients[/b] box and eventually the machine will show you all of the recipes that you can make with that essence.

3. Prepare a blank to receive the shard
This step is a lot like deconstruction. Instead of using the dissolver or remover, you use the Dust of Disjunction (purchased from the same vendor as the dissolver and remover). When you use the Dust of Disjunction on an item, any bonus, race restriction, prefix and/or suffix is removed from the item. "Craftable" is added to the description of the item.

4. Fuse the shard to the blank
This step you put the shard in made in step #2 and the blank you made in step #3 into the Your Ingredients of the Bounds Items machine, click the Craft button and you have the item with the prefix or suffix from the consumed shard.

Additional possible steps in the crafting process
Transmuting essences
You can convert Greater Essences into 5 Lesser Essences of the same type or you can convert 2 of one type of Greater Essence into 1 of another type of Greater Essence. You can't convert Lesser Essences into a Greater Essence. The conversions are:
2 Greater Air -> 1 Greater Fire
2 Greater Arcane -> 1 Greater Body
2 Greater Body -> 1 Greater Mind
2 Greater Chaos -> 1 Greater Evil
2 Greater Divine -> 1 Greater Chaos
2 Greater Earth -> 1 Greater Air
2 Greater Evil -> 1 Greater Law
2 Greater Fire -> 1 Greater Water
2 Greater Good -> 1 Greater Chaos
2 Greater Law -> 1 Greater Divine
2 Greater Mind -> 1 Greater Arcane
2 Greater Water -> 1 Greater Earth

Deconstructing shards
This is just like deconstructing an item. You put the shard into Item Deconstruction machine, put the appropriate deconstructing material (dissolver or remover) into the machine and click Deconstruct. You will get some of the essences that were used to make the shard back. My impression is that the more materials that go into a shard, the smaller percentage you get back.

[GuntherBovine]

Open up your character sheet and click on the Crafting tab:

(Can't insert image for some reason)

You will see that there are three types of crafting that you can earn levels in: Arcane, Divine and Elemental. Arcane is primarily skill buff items. Arcane essences are Arcane, Body and Mind. Divine is primarily healing and cleric buffs. Divine essences are Divine, Evil and Good. Elemental is primarily buffing elemental spells. elemental weapon prefixes and resistance to elemental damage. Elemental essences are Air, Earth and Fire. Every time you deconstruct an item, you get experience in the type of crafting that corresponds to the type of the essence produce. Every time you make a shard, you get experience in the type of crafting that corresponds to the type of essence you used. So you could be level 75 in Elemental crafting and level 1 in Divine.

[GuntherBovine]

As you can see in the picture in the prior post, Gunthep is level 1 in all of the crafting types. He has 1 experience in Arcane and Elemental from deconstructing one item that gave Arcane essences and one item that gave Elemental essences. To get to the next level of crafting skill, Gunthep needs 11 more Arcane or Elemental experience or 12 more Divine experience.

As Gunthep really doesn't have enough essences to do anything useful right now, he runs off to do more quests. At the end of level 2, he deconsctructs 6 more items. He now has 4 experience in both Arcane and Elemental.

Essence Tiers
There are fixed amount of essences that are used in recipes that I call tiers:
Tier 1 - 4 Lesser Essences
Tier 2 - 1 Greater Essence and 4 Lesser Essences
Tier 3 - 3 Greater Essences and 12 Lesser Essences
Tier 4 - 6 Greater Essences and 12 Lesser Essences
Tier 5 - 6 Greater Essences and 32 Lesser Essences
Tier 6 - 10 Greater Essences and 32 Lesser Essences
Tier 7 - 10 Greater Essences and 80 Lesser Essences
Tier 8 - 15 Greater Essences and 80 Lesser Essences
Tier 9 - 15 Greater Essences and 192 Lesser Essences
Tier 10 - 21 Greater Essences and 192 Lesser Essences
Tier 11 - 21 Greater Essences and 224 Lesser Essences
Tier 12 - 28 Greater Essences and 224 Lesser Essences
Tier 13 - 28 Greater Essences and 256 Lesser Essences

At this point, I have enough Water essences to do a Tier 1 recipe, but all Water Tier 1 recipes used Khyber Dragonshard Fragments and all I have is Siberys. I have enough Mind Essences to do a Tier 1 or 2 recipe. All of the Mind Essence recipes use Siberys Dragonshard Fragments and I have plenty of those.

Recipe Levels, Chance of Success and XP
You will always be successful when you try to make a receipe that is at your crafting level. Every level above your crafting level cuts the chance of success by 5% (except 9 levels above has a 54% chance of success) and you can't attempt a recipe unless you have a least a 50% chance of success. However, you will normally be making recipes above your crafting level. Why? Because that is where the xp and useful prefixes/suffixes are. Let's take an example. Let's say Gunthep has 1 Greater Fire Essence (which he does) and 4 Lesser Fire Essences (he actually only has 3). He could make a Fire Touch Shard with a 100% chance of success and get 10 xp. If he did that 20 times, he earn 200 xp (we are ignoring level ups for now). He could instead make 20 Superior Inferno I shards, a level 5 recipe with the same ingredients, an 80% chance of success and 13 xp. If Gunthep did that, you would expect him to make 16 shards (80% of 20), fail to make a shard on 4 attempts and earn 208 experience (16 x 13). Right now, the increased amount of experience you would expect to earn for doing recipes over your level is small, but we will see that it gets bigger as you gain levels in crafting.

At this level, the amount of cratfing material used between the two recipes is pretty much a wash. Making 20 Fire Touch shards would use 80 Lesser Fire Essences. The 16 successful attempts to make a Superior Inferno I shard would use 64 Lesser Fire Essences. As far as I can tell, Failures cost a random amount of material, but never the full of amount the recipe calls for. So let's assume that each failure averages 2 Lesser Fire Essences. The 4 failures would use 8 Lesser Fire Essences, making 72 used for the 20 Superior Inferno I attempts, a savings of 8 Lesser Fire Essences. However, Gunthep would deconstruct all of the shard regardless of which recipe he used. Let's assume each decontruction on average nets 2 Lesser Fire Essences. Doing that for the Fire Touch shards would mean that Gunthep would get back 40 Lesser Fire Essences (20 x 2), for a net cost of 40 Lesser Fire Essences. Deconstructing the 16 Superior Inferno I shards would get back 32 Lesser Fire Essences, for a net cost of 40 Lesser Fire Essences. Obviously, if you assume a different average consumption of essences for failures and a different average yield for deconstructing shards, you will get a different net average cost of making a shard. I haven't paid close enough attention to the cost of failures and the yield for deconstructing shards to say if my guesses are accurate.

[GuntherBovine]

For casters, there are lots of useful low level recipes. For a cleric, the recipe for a Superior Ardor I shard is level 4 and uses 4 Lesser Good Essences and 1 Siberys Dragonshard and the recipe for a Superior Ardor II shard is level 11 and uses 1 Greater Good Essence, 4 Lesser Good Essences and 1 Siberys Dragonshard. For wizards and sorcerers, the recipes for Superior Cacophony/Erosion/Freeze/Inferno/Spark I shards are level 3 and use 4 Lesser Essences and the recipes for Superior Cacophony/Erosion/Freeze/Inferno/Spark II shards are level 11 and use 1 Greater Essence and 4 Lesser Essences. The recipe for a Power I shard is level 3 and for a Power II shard is level 10.

For melees, there isn't much that is better than equipment that you can get in Korthos. The only level 1-11 recipes I think are useful are Spell Resistance (13) (which is level 10 and uses 3 Greater Arcance, 12 Lesser Arcane and 4 Siberys) and Lesser Bane shards (Animal, Chaotic Outsider, Halfling, Lawful Outsider, Magical Beast, Ooze, Plant and Vermin).

Gunthep is about to run "Redfand the Unruled", so a Longsword of Lesser Vermin Bane (1-6 against spiders and scorpions) would be useful. Handwraps of Lesser Ooze Bane would also be useful, but I don't have the right essences for that right now. ArgentMage has a thread on making a Lesser Ooze Bane quarterstaff. I prefer handwraps for fighting oozes as they don't wear when fighting oozes like most weapons. It is really frustrating to have a weapon for fighting oozes that is so worn that it isn't useable, but you have more oozes to fight.

[GuntherBovine]

The recipe for Lesser Vermin Bane is level 10, so I have a 54% chance of success. If I fail, I could lose my only Greater Mind Essence. I have 8 Lesser Mind Essences, so I can stand to lose or use some of those. Lesser Vermin Bane is an Arcane recipe and I am 9 xp away from leveling up. When I level up, the chance of success for the Lesser Vermin Bane will increase to 60%. So I am going to make a Search +1 shard first (level 3, 90% chance of success, 11 xp) to go up a level in Arcane crafting to reduce the risk of failure on the more expensive Lesser Vermin Bane recipe. I was successful on making the +1 Search shard. The chance of success is now up to 60% but the amount of xp has dropped from 18 to 17. I am successful in make the Lesser Vermin Bane shard and am now up to level 3 on Arcane crafting.

Whenever you gain a level, the chance for making all recipes that you could make before improves, but the amount of experience you earn for making them decreases. For example, when I was at level 1 Arcane, I had a 54% chance of success making a Lesser Ooze Bane shard and making it would give me 18 experience. Now that I am level 3, I have a 65% chance of success and making it will earn 15 experience. Whenever you make a recipe, it is easier to make it again but provides less experience over and above the changes for gaining a crafting level. For example, Lesser Vermin Bane now has a 70% chance of success and 14 xp, not the 65% and 15 xp of other level 10 recipes.

I need to prepare an item to receive the Lesser Vermin Bane shard. Before I do that, I exit my niche and go left (clockwise) to the Bound Items machine. I dig my shard out of my Ingredients bag and put it into the machine. In the recipe under Requirements is a little picure of a sword. When I put my mouse on the sword icon, a little text box shows that tells my what types of craftable items will work with this shard, "Main Hand Weapons, Off Hand Weapon/Shield". So I could make a Heavy Steel Shield of Lesser Vermin Bane if I wanted to. This is important to do because you don't want to spend the money to prep an item and then discover that it can't receive the shard you want to use.

I head over to the crafting vendor, buy a Dust of Disjunction, then head back to the Item Deconstruction machine. I put a Masterwork Longsword into the machine, click on the "Item Disjunction" recipe, click Deconstruct and I have a Longsword that is ready to craft. When I look at the description, I see "Craftable (+5): This item is craftable...This item currently has a Maximun Enchantment Level of 5." I will discuss Maximum Enchantment Levels later.

While I am at the Item Deconstruction machine, I deconstruct the Minute Seeing +1 shard I made, getting 2 Lesser Mind Essences and 1 Greater Mind Essence. So I wound up with more essences than I used to make the shard. Score!

I then head back to Bound Items machine, put the Lesser Vermin Bane shard and the craftable Longsword into the Your Ingredients box, click on the Lesser Vermin Bane Item recipe and click the Craft button. I now have a Longsword of Lesser Vermin Bane. Making it gave me 8 more Arcane xp, so I am up to 41.

[GuntherBovine]

I am the proud owner of a Longsword of Lesser Vermin Bane. I would prefer to be a proud owner of a +1 Longsword of Lesser Vermin Bane. To do that, I have to first create a +1 Enhancement Spirit. I would make a +1 Enhancement Spirit by buying a Liquid Knife Potion from the crafting supply vendor and then using that with a +1 item in the Item Deconstruction machine.

Once I had the +1 Enhancement Spirit, I would need to make a +1 Enhancement Bonus Shard. That takes 1 Greater Arcance Essence, 4 Lesser Arcane Essences and Siberys Dragonshard Fragment in addition to the +1 Enhancement Spirit. As I don't have any Arcane Essences at the moment, having a +1 Longsword of Lesser Vermin Bane is just a dream.

It is time to put the Longsword of Lesser Vermin Bane to use to find more items to deconstruct.

[GuntherBovine]

When you are picking quest rewards, think about what materials the reward will provide when you deconstruct it. When I did "Redgand the Unruled", I had a choice of a +1 Shocking Touch Longsword and a Ring of Repairing +3. For this toon, Divine Essences are better than Arcanes Essences, which are better than Elemental Essences. The +1 Shocking Longsword would have given me a Level 1 amount of Elemental Essences. The Ring of Repairing +3 would have given me a Level 2 amount of Arcane Essences. The latter was the better choice.

DDO Wiki has a somewhat limited list of the value of Prefixes and Suffixes.

[GuntherBovine]

I screwed up. I had a ring with a +1 skill on it. I thought about keeping it, but I said, "I will find more and I want the essences so I can do some crafting now." Since then, I have found either elemental weapons, +3 skill items, or items for slots that I plan to keep the Korthos gear for a while. What I should have done is made a crafting plan, a plan of what items I wanted to craft so I would know what items to keep. Such a plan should be flexible because I will hopefully acquire some items before I have a chance to craft them. A crafting plan should have a different list for each type of crafting. Here is my plan for my 15 Paladin / 3 Rogue / 2 Ranger toon for recipes up to level 20:

Arcane
Level Shard - # of Greater / # of Lesser Essence used, # and type of dragonshard fragments, # and type of collectables (if any)
3 Disable Device +1 - 0/4 Body , 1 Khyber
10 +1 Enhancement - 1/4 Arcane, 1 Siberys, +1 Enhancement Spirit
10 Lesser Ooze Bane - 1/4 Arcane, 1 Siberys
10 Spell Resistance (13) - 3/12 Arcane, 4 Siberys
12 Lesser False Life - 1/4 Body, 1 Khyber
13 Dexterity +1 - 1/4 Body, 1 Khyber
14 Wizardry I - 3/12 Arcane, 4 Siberys, 2 Amber Vials
15 Hide +3 - 3/12 Body, 4 Khyber
15 Invulnerability - 3/12 Body, 4 Khyber, 3 Strings of Prayer Beads
15 Disable Device +3 - 3/12 Body, 4 Khyber
15 Open Lock +3 - 3/12 Body, 4 Khyber
15 Natural Armor Bonus +1 - 3/12 Body, 4 Khyber, 3 Sweet Whitecaps
16 Move Silently +3 - 3/12 Body, 4 Khyber
17 Balance +3 - 3/12 Body, 4 Khyber
19 Ghost Touch - 3/12 Arcane, 4 Siberys
20 Attack Bonus +1 - 6/12 Mind, 4 Siberys
20 +2 Enhancement - 3/12 Arcane, 4 Siberys, +2 Enhancement Spirit

I have the list order by level. For priority, I would say #1 is Invulnerablilty, #2 is Spell Resistance and #3 is Disable Device. Looking at the list, I need a lot of Body essences, some Arcane essences and not much in the way of Mind essences. I need to keep this in mind when I am looking at quest rewards and when I am making shards just to boost my Arcane crafting skill.

Divine
4 Superior Ardor I - 0/4 Good, 1 Siberys
6 Viscious - 3/12 Chaos, 4 Khyber
8 Sacred - 0/4 Good, 1 Siberys
10 Power II - 1/4 Divine, 1 Siberys
12 Lesser Construct Bane - 1/4 Chaos, 1 Khyber
12 Command - 1/4 Divine, 1 Siberys
16 Power III - 3/12 Divine 4 Siberys, 1 Page torn from a Research Notebook
18 Fearsome - 6/32 Divine, 9 Siberys
18 Hallowed - 3/12 Good, 4 Siberys
19 Everbright - 6/32 Law, 9 Siberys
20 Blueshine - 3/12 Law, 4 Siberys

For priority, I would say #1 is Superior Ardor I, #2 is Power II and #3 is Command. I don't have much use for Chaos and Law comes in only later.

Elemental
8 Unbalancing - 3/4 Air, 1 Siberys
13 - Protection +1 - 1/4 Earth, 1 Khyber, 1 Page torn from a Research Notebook
13 - Light Fortification - 1/4 Earth, 1 Khyber, 2 Amber Vials
13 - Lesser Goblinoid Bane - 1/4 Water, 1 Khyber, 3 Strings of Prayer Beads
13 - Lesser Reptilian Bane - 1/4 Water, 1 Khyber, 3 Strings of Prayer Beads

Not a lot of Elemental shards that I want to make early on. 1-6 elemental damage shards are level 33.

[GuntherBovine]

Think about items you are likely to get soon
I made a Longsword of Lesser Vermin Bane and it is really helpful in quests with spiders and scorpions. As I have the "Tangleroot Gorge" adventure pack, I will be regularly seeing spiders and scorpions. However, I also have "The Sharn Syndicate" adventure pack and the first thing I am going to do when I hit level 4 is run that series and get a nicked weapon. Nicked weapons are +1, do 1-6 elemental damage and have another buff (Stunning +4, Parrying, or Competence Attack Bonus +1). The nicked weapon will be better at killing spiders and scorpions than my Longsword of Lesser Vermin Bane. I could use a lot of essences to upgrade it to a +1 Fire Touch Longsword of Lesser Vermin Bane, but the slight improvement over the nicked weapon won't justify the cost in essences, the extra inventory slot and the hassle of swapping weapons. A better choice would be to deconstruct the Longsword of Lesser Vermin Bane once I get a nicked weapon

Keep situational suffixes and prefixes to themselves
Let's say I have a Ring of Light Fortification that I have crafted. I would like to have Clever +2 on a ring for when I Search and Disable Device to get a +1 to my skill. Putting the Clever +2 prefix on the Ring of Light Fortification would be a bad idea because I should save the suffix on that ring for something I will always want on like Ogre Power +2. Now, I shouldn't create a Clever +2 Ring of Disable Device +3 because once I can create a Disable Device +5 shard, that ring is obsolete and I will only be able to recover the essences from either the prefix or the suffix. A much better approach would be to make Goggles of Disable Device +3 and a Clever +2 Ring.

Edit: removed section "Don't add a weak enhancement/prefix/suffix to a strong one" as you can upgrade enhancement/prefixes/suffixes

[GuntherBovine]

I am about to do "Tangleroot Gorge" and it has lots of spiders. So I am going to add Fire Touch to my Longsword of Lesser Vermin Bane. I have plenty of Fire Essences - 3 Greater and 8 Lesser - and no plans for using them in the near future, so losing 4 of them for a short-term weapon upgrade is ok to me. Also, I earn experience for applying the shard an item.

"Tangleroot Gorge" also has some oozes and I would like some Handwraps of Lesser Ooze Bane for dealing with them. However, the only Arcane essences I have are 3 Lesser Arcane Essences. Fortunaly, I have 8 Greater Mind Essences and no real plans for using them. I convert 4 Greater Mind Essences into 2 Greater Arcane Essences and then split 1 of the Greater Arcance Essences into 5 Lesser Arcane Essences. I was successful on the first try to make the shard. I make a Shocking Touch shard and add that to the Handwraps as well. Unless I find a Muckbane, these are going to be my oozebeaters for a long time, so doing a minor upgrade on them makes sense. My crafting levels are now 5 for Arcane, 1 for Divine and 4 for Elemental.

[GuntherBovine]

I found some Greater Body Essences in Splinterskull, so I have enough to trying making a shard of Invulnerability. But before I do that, I want to do some crafting to raise my Arcane crafting skill.

I still have quite a bit of Mind Essences that I don't have a big use for. Now that I am level 5 for Arcane, I have 100% Chance of Success for all recipes level 5 or less. All of those receipes will give me 10 xp except for the Seach +1 recipe that I have already used, which will give me only 7 xp. I decide to try to make a Enchantment Save +1 shard for 4 Lesser Mind Essences and 1 Siberys. 85% for 12 xp. I am successful. I deconstruct the shard and get 3 Lesser Mind Essences back. Not bad. I make and then unmake a Concentration +1 shard for again a net of 1 Lesser Mind Essences and my Arcane Crafting goes to level 6. Level 6 and lower recipes for Mind Essences now only give me at most 9 xp. I make and unmake another Enchantment Save +1 shard (95% for 11 xp). Success again and deconstructing it yields only 1 Lesser Mind Essence. I split 3 Greater Body Essences into 15 Lesser Body Essences. Level 6 Body Essence recipes give me 1 more xp than Mind recipes. I construct a Blood shard (85% for 13 xp) and deconstruct for 3 Lesser Body Essences. I am now Level 7 Arcane.

I am 18 away from the next level and am up to a 60% chance of making Invulnerability. I decide that I don't want to spend the time making probably 3 more shards to get to the next level of Arcane. I put the items to create the Invulnerability shard into the machine. A failure costs me some of the crafting material. Another try and success! I am up to level 8 Arcane. I disjunct my +1 Full Plate and add the shard. Adding the shard gives me 3 xp. I gather in all my crafting supplies and am ready to go kill some kobolds.

[GuntherBovine]

There isn't much in the Elemental crafting line that interests me. Therefore, I am going to do an experiment with it. I am going to build the highest xp shard I can with a >= 95% chance of success and that doesn't use a Major Essence and see how much xp I can earn per Minor Essence. I have plenty of items that will give up elemental essences when deconstructed, but I am only going to deconstruct them when I need more essences. Deconstructing items give crafting xp, but as lower level xp is cheaper now than it will be later, I want to delay deconstructing those items. As I don't have a lot of Earth Essences and I like some Earth recipes, I am not going to use Earth recipes for this.

Here are the shards that I made:
Superior Inferno I (net +2), now level 5
Superior Inferno I (net -1)
Lesser Fire Resistance (net -2), now level 6
Lesser Cold Resistance (net -2)
Greater Spark II (net +1)
Greater Spark II (net -3), now level 7
Striding 5% (net -1)
Improved Resonance I (net -1), now level 8
Improved Magnetism I (net -2)
Improved Magnetism I (net -1), now level 9
Improved Glaciation I (net +2)
Improved Glaciation I (net -1)
Improved Glaciation I (net -3), now level 10

At the cost of 14 minor essences, I went from level 4 to level 10. Each fabrication and deconstruction cost me on average a little more than 1 minor essence. However, the xp value of the 4 minor essence recipes has dropped down to 7 xp. The other extreme is a level 20 Reflex +2 shard that would cost 1 Major Air and 4 Minor Air and have a 50% chance of success, but would give me 40 xp. However, the 1/4 recipes still are Level 1 Essences and give the same amount of essences as the 4 minor essences recipes. The 4 minor recipes cost ~1 minor for 7 xp compared to ~6 minor for 40 xp for the best 1/4 recipe (ignoring the difference in chance of success), so 4 minor recipes still give the most xp per minor essence consumed.

Greater Inferno II (net -3)
Greater Freeze II (net -2)
Improved Glaciation I (net -2)
Greater Inferno II (net -2), now level 11

Now, the 4 minor recipes have dropped to 6 xp. The level 20 Reflex +2 is now 36
xp (54% chance of success). I feel like the 4 minor recipes still give me the best bang for the buck.

Striding 5% (net +2)
Improved Magnetism I (net -1)
Improved Resonance I (net +2)
Greater Freeze II (net -1)

Now, the 4 minor recipes have dropped to 5 xp. I craft a shard that I actually want (Light Fortification) and I am up to level 12 Elemental crafting

[GuntherBovine]

I was really pleased the approach I used to get to level 12 Elemental crafting. I am going to do the same thing for Divine. However, with Divine there ar several lower level shards that I actually want:
4 Superior Ardor I - 0/4 Good, 1 Siberys
12 Command - 1/4 Divine, 1 Siberys
15 Lesser Undead Bane - 1/4 Good, 1 Siberys, 3 Sweet Whitecaps

I am starting with 0 Divine crafting xp, 6 items that will give Divine essences when deconstructed and the following Greater divine essences in hand - 3 Good, 5 Divine and 3 Chaos.

Before I start, I am going to look at recipes that I may want up to level 33
16 Power III - 3/12 Divine 4 Siberys, 1 Page torn from a Research Notebook
18 Fearsome - 6/32 Divine, 9 Siberys
18 Hallowed - 3/12 Good, 4 Siberys
19 Everbright - 6/32 Law, 9 Siberys
20 Blueshine - 3/12 Law, 4 Siberys
23 Seeker +2 - 1/4 Law, 1 Siberys, 2 Amber Vials
23 Power IV - 6/32 Divine, 9 Siberys, 1 Page torn from a Research Notebook
23 Proof Against Poison - 6/32 Good, 9 Siberys, 3 Sweet Whitecaps
25 Blindness Immunity - 6/32 Good, 9 Siberys, 1 Small Wooden Idol
27 Negative Energy Absorption 20% - 3/12 Evil, 4 Khyber
28 Power V - 6/32 Divine, 9 Siberys, 1 Page torn from a Research Notebook
30 Healing Lore - 6/32 Good, 9 Siberys
31 Good Luck - 6/32 Divine, 9 Siberys, 3 Caravan Logbooks
32 Telekinetic - 6/32 Chaos, 9 Khyber
32 Seeker +4 - 3/12 Law, 4 Siberys, 2 Signets of the Devourer
33 True Law - 3/12 Law, 4 Siberys, 3 Glittering Dusts
33 Sivler Flame - 6/32 Law, 9 Siberys

Looking at the list, I have little need for Chaos or Evil. OTOH, I have about an equal need for Divine, Good and Law. So I would prefer to use up Chaos or Evil essences to level up and stay away from using Divine, Good and Law essences. Sadly, the only 4 minor Chaos essence recipe is Lesser Lawful Outsider Bane (Level 9). I split some Greater Good Essences and start crafing:
Greater Ardor I (net -1)
Greater Beatitude I (net -3), now level 2
Power I (net -2), now level 3
Superior Nihil I (net -1), now level 4
Intimidate +1 (net +5), now level 5
Superior Ardor I (keep)
Greater Brilliance II (net -1), now level 6
Lesser Lawful Outsider Bane (net -2)
Greater Nihil II (net +3), now level 7
Improved Nullification I (net -2)
Lesser Lawful Outsider Bane (net -2)
Improved Radiance I (net -1), now level 8
Improved Devotion I (net -1)
Command (keep), now level 9
Lesser Lawful Outsider Bane (net +2)
Improved Nullification I (net -1)
Improved Devotion I (net -1), now level 10
Sacred (net -3)
Improved Benevolence I (net +4)
Improved Devotion I (net -3)
Lesser Lawful Outsider Bane (net =1), now level 11
Improved Radiance I (net -2)
Improved Nullication I (net +4)
Greater Nihil II (net -3)
Improved Radiance I (net -3)
Greater Ardor II (net -2)
Greter Beatitude II (net -2), now level 12

I went from 6 items, 3 Greater Good, 5 Greater Divine and 3 Greater Chaos to 2/4 Greater/Lesser Good essences, 4/3 Divine essences, 1/7 Chaos essences, 2/4 Evil essences, a Superior Ardor I shard and a Command shard. I did one final craft, making a Lesser Undead Bane shard and stopped.

[GuntherBovine]

I am going to follow the same plan as with the other 2 types of crafting - use 4 minor essence recipes to get to crafting level 12 while making any shards I want to keep along the way.

Improved Reconstruction I (net -2)
Improved Reconstruction I (net -2), now level 9
+1 Enchancement Bonus (apply to Oozebeater wraps)
Blood Shard (net -2), now level 10
Improved Impulse I (net +2)
Improved Impulse I (net -3)
Blood Shard (net -1)
Improved Reconstruction I (net -2), now level 11
Greater Mending II (net -2)

All of the 4 minor recipes give 5 xp or less, so I am going to stop using them. The one thing I want to make now is a Ghost Touch shard, which I want for the boss wraith in the final Catacombs quest. However, I am 9 Minor Arcane Essences short. I have an item (bracers) that I can deconstruct for some those essences, but they are the only craftable bracers I have. So I am going to stop make shards hear. I make a Heavy Mace of Lesser Undead Bane and a Ring of Light Fortification, then I run some more quests.

I picked up barely enough Arcane essences, so I am not wild about the 60% chance of success. I make a Will Save +2 shard with Mind Essences (success first time) and that takes me to level 12. Again, I am lucky enough to craft the shard on the first try and add the Ghost Touch shard to my Heavy Mace of Lesser Undead Bane. I am now ready to smack around Arkasic Dryden.

[GuntherBovine]

Now would be a good time to take stock of my current situaton and plan for the near future. There are lots of great recipes at level 33, so I am going to look at recipes up to that level. Below is my crafting plan and current resources for each type of crafting.
Arcane Crafting
10 Spell Resistance (13) - 3/12 Arcane, 4 Siberys
12 Lesser False Life - 1/4 Body, 1 Khyber
14 Wizardry I - 3/12 Arcane, 4 Siberys, 2 Amber Vials
15 Hide +3 - 3/12 Body, 4 Khyber
15 Natural Armor Bonus +1 - 3/12 Body, 4 Khyber, 3 Sweet Whitecaps
17 Balance +3 - 3/12 Body, 4 Khyber
20 Attack Bonus +1 - 6/12 Mind, 4 Siberys
20 +2 Enhancement - 3/12 Arcane, 4 Siberys, +2 Enhancement Spirit
23 Spell Resistance (15) - 6/32 Arcane, 9 Siberys, 3 Strings of Prayer Beads
23 Persuason - 3/12 Mind, 4 Siberys
25 Constitution +2 - 3/12 Body, 4 Khyber, 3 Sweet Whitecaps
25 Strength +2 - 3/12 Body, 4 Khyber, 2 Amber Vials
25 Intelligence +2 - 3/12 Mind, 4 Khyber, 1 Page torn from a Research Notebook
25 Wisdom +2 - 3/12 Mind, 4 Khyber, 3 Strings of Prayer Beads
28 Open Lock +5 - 6/32 Body, 9 Khyber
28 Move Silently +5 - 6/32 Body, 9 Khyber
28 Hide +5 - 6/32 Body, 9 Khyber
28 Disable Device +5 - 6/32 Body, 9 Khyber
29 Spot +5 - 6/32 Mind, 9 Khyber
30 +3 Enhancement - 6/32 Arcane, 9 Siberys, +3 Enhancement Spirit
30 Wizardy II - 6/32 Arcane, 9 Siberys, 1 Research Diary
30 Natural Armor Bonus +2 - 6/32 Body, 9 Khyber, 2 Skull Fragments
30 Balance +5 - 6/32 Body, 9 Khyber

My current inventory (Major/Minor):
Arcane 0/1
Body 4/8
Mind 6/3

It is tough to say what my priorities are as there are so many good recipes and I am so limited by my inventory. I really want more Arcane Essences so I can make a couple of +2 Ehancement Bonus shards. From there, I would love to start making the +2 stat shards. Once my toon hits level 4 Paladin and can cast healing spells, I am going to need an item that gives SP's.

Divine Crafting
10 Power II - 1/4 Divine, 1 Siberys
16 Power III - 3/12 Divine, 4 Siberys, 1 Page torn from a Research Notebook
18 Fearsome - 6/32 Divine, 9 Siberys
18 Hallowed - 3/12 Good, 4 Siberys
19 Everbright - 6/32 Law, 9 Siberys
20 Blueshine - 3/12 Law, 4 Siberys
23 Seeker +2 - 1/4 Law, 1 Siberys, 2 Amber Vials
23 Power IV - 6/32 Divine, 9 Siberys, 1 Page torn from a Research Notebook
23 Proof Against Poison - 6/32 Good, 9 Siberys, 3 Sweet Whitecaps
25 Blindness Immunity - 6/32 Good, 9 Siberys, 1 Small Wooden Idol
27 Negative Energy Absorption 20% - 3/12 Evil, 4 Khyber
28 Power V - 6/32 Divine, 9 Siberys, 1 Page torn from a Research Notebook
30 Healing Lore - 6/32 Good, 9 Siberys
31 Good Luck - 6/32 Divine, 9 Siberys, 3 Caravan Logbooks
32 Telekinetic - 6/32 Chaos, 9 Khyber
32 Seeker +4 - 3/12 Law, 4 Siberys, 2 Signets of the Devourer
33 True Law - 3/12 Law, 4 Siberys, 3 Glittering Dusts
33 Sivler Flame - 6/32 Law, 9 Siberys

My current inventory (Major/Minor):
Chaos 1/7
Divine 4/3
Evil 5/4
Good 1/0
Law 0/0

For my priorities, I would say my Divine Essences are going to go for Power shards once my Paladin can cast spells. Blindness Immunity is vital for some upcoming quests. Those all the only "got to haves". I will probably make Hallowed once my Paladin can start turning undead. I can see making an Everbright shield. Negative Energy Absorption looks to be the only use for my Evil essences, so I may trasmute some of them to something I am more in need of.

Elemental Crafting
15 Lesser Fire Guard - 3/12 Fire, 4 Siberys, 1 Small Wooden Idol
19 Sonic Resistance - 6/32 Air, 9 Siberys
23 Striding 10% - 3/12 Air, 4 Siberys, 3 Strings of Prayer Beads
25 Keen - 3/12 Earth, 4 Khyber, 1 Deadly Feverblanche
25 Parrying - 3/12 Water, 4 Khyber
26 Protection +2 - 3/12 Earth, 4 Khyber, 1 Page torn from a Research Notebook
29 Lightning Resistance - 6/32 Air 9 Siberys, 3 Funerary Tokens
29 Acid Resistance - 6/32 Earth, 9 Khyber, 3 Funerary Tokens
29 Cold Resistance - 6/32 Water, 9 Khyber, 3 Funerary Tokens
33 Shock - 6/12 Air, 4 Siberys, 3 Glittering Dusts
33 Acid - 6/12 Earth, 4 Khyber, 2 Withered Cryptmoss
33 Flaming - 6/12 Fire, 4 Siberys, 1 Powdered Blood
33 Frost - 6/12 Water, 4 Khyber, 2 Signets of the Deveourer

My current inventory (Major/Minor):
Air 4/13
Earth 0/1
Fire 4/5
Water 2/13

First priority is Lesser Fire Guard for my Full Plate Mail of Invulnerability. Having a shield of the various resistances would be helpful for situations. A Protection +2 item would be good.

[GuntherBovine]

Enchantment levels
Every shard has an enchantment level. It is the number in the upper right hand corner of the description of the shard. At low levels, all of the shards have an enchantment level of 1.

Every crafted item has an enchantment level. It is the number in the upper right hand corner of the description of the crafted item. It is the sum of the enchantment levels of all of the shards crafted on to the item. For a +1 Ghost Touch of Lesser Undead Bane, its enchantment level is 3 (1 for +1, 1 for Ghost Touch, 1 for Lesser Undead Bane).

Minimum levels
Every crafted item has a minimum levl. As far as I can tell, the formula for minimum level is 2 X Enchantment Level - 1. So a +1 Ghost Touch of Lesser Undead Bane would have a minimum level of 5 (2 x 3 -1). There is nothing in the craftng process that tells you the miminum level of an item after it is crafted, which led to my sad story below.

Maximum enchantment levels
When you disjunct an item, it has a Maximum Enchantment Level of 5. That means the sum of the enchantment levels of all of the shards crafted on to the item cannot exceed 5. Consequently, this isn't a problem for items with a minimum level of 9 (2x5 - 1). If you want to make an item with more enchantments than 5, you must apply a Shard of Potential to increase its maximum enchantment level. Those shards are made like any other shard except you can use any type of essence to make them. The different Shards of Potential are:
+6 - 25 of the same essence
+7 - 50
+8 - 100
+9 - 175
+10 - 275
+11 - 400
+12 - 550
So I see how I good future use for my Evil essences.

Effect of no magic bonus on a weapon
Let's say that you are level 4 and want to wield a +1 Ghost Touch weapon of Lesser Undead Bane for killing wraiths an spectres. You can't do it as that is has an enchantment level of 3, which means a minimum level of 5. You could instead use a Ghost Touch weapon of Lesser Undead Bane (EL 2, ML 3). What is the difference? Well, as I said later in the thread, I died fighting the Soulless One (a red named spectre) with a Ghost Touch Heavy Mace of Lesser Undead Bane because the spectre had a 50% Damage Reduction (DR) against the blundgeon damage of my weapon. I don't know if that is something limited to incorporeal enemies. I used a Fire Touched Longsword of Lesser Vermin Bane against Redfang and there was no DR.

My pathetic crafting session
I crafted the Lesser Fire Guard and added it to my Full Plate Mail of Invulnerability. I did some more questing and deconstructing, and I had enough essences to constuct a +2 Stat item. Deconstructing items bumped my Arcane crafting up to level 13. I was 47 xp away from level 14 and 100 xp away from level 15.

My Arcane inventory (Major/Minor):
Arcane 3/8
Body 8/15
Mind 11/21

I really wanted to make a +2 Enhancement for my Ghost Touch Heavy Mace of Lesser Undead Bane, but I didn't have enough Lesser Arcane Essences. Fortunately, I could convert 2 Greater Mind to 1 Greater Arcane and split that. That meant I have only 1 more Lesser Arcane Essence than what I needed to create the shard and my chance of success is 65%. So I decided to make another shard first to up my level and my chance of success.

For my other shard, I could make a 4 minor essence recipe, but the most xp one will give is 3, which isn't enough to bother. I had lots of Mind Essences, so that is what I wanted to use to bump up my crafting level. The best 100% chance of success recipe for xp gave 13 xp. The Will Save +2 was a 1/4 recipe, had a 70% chance of success and gave 27 xp. That was double the xp of the 100% chance of success, so was a much better choice. Instead, I decided to try to make a Persuasion shard (level 23, 3/12, 46 xp) as I wanted it and making something of Persuasion would give me the 47 xp to take me to the next level. Failure cost me 2 Major and 6 Minor. Success the second time. I checked what I could use it on and the list was "Helmet/Hat, Goggles, Ring, Trinket". I didn't have a hat equipped, so I made a Helm of Persuasion. I didn't need my Necklace of Haggle +3 anymore and deconstructing it took me to level 14 and 6/6 for Mind Essences.

I was up to a 70% chance for the +2 Enhancement shard and I was successful. Woot! I added it to my Ghost Touch Heavy Mace of Lesser Undead Bane and I had a +2 Ghost Touch Heavy Mace of Lesser Undead Bane. Unfortunately, the mimimum level for my +2 Ghost Touch Heavy Mace of Lesser Undead Bane was 7, so I won't be able to use it for 2 more levels. Not what I wanted. This will force me to make a +1 Ghost Touch weapon of Lesser Undead Bane to use until I reach level 7.

I was now 33 xp away from level 15. There was a 1/4 Body recipe (Poison Save +3) that would give me 32 xp. 65% chance and Success! I deconstructed it and was at Level 15 Arcane. I tried to make a +2 Constitution shard. Failure cost me 2 Major and 2 Minor Body Essences. I had a cloak that I was thinking of keep to disjunct, but I deconstructed it for 1 Greater Body and 1 Minor Body. I then split a Major Body and tried making the shard again. Another failure costs me 2 Major and 6 Minor.

Overall, a very disappointing crafting session.

[GuntherBovine]

* * * * * Next crafting session * * * * *
I really need a +1 Ghost Touch weapon of Lesser Undead Bane. I made the Ghost Touch shard and the Lesser Undead Bane shard and crafted them on to a Warhammer, but I don't have enough Arcane Essences to make the +1 Enchantment Bonus shard.

I want to make the +2 Constitution shard, but I am leary of trying to make it ast 50% chance of success. Instead, I decide to try to make a +2 Intelligence shard. I have more Mind Essences than I do Body Essences and I don't have as much of a need from them. If I can successfully make the shard, then I will go up a level in Arcane. Another crafting failure, costing me 2 Major and 6 Minor essences. Yet another failure costs me 2 Major and 6 Minor essences. Also, a Page torn from a Research Notebook was consumed each time.

After those failures, I decided to switch over to Elemental. I tried a Stunning +2 (1/4 Water, 75%) and failed, losing 1/1. Tried again and fail again, again losing 1/1. I tried a Reflex Save +2 shard (1/4 Air, 60%) and failed, losing 1/2. That is 7 failures in a row. Tried again and finally success, taking me to level 13.

I had hopes of getting high enough to make an Acid Resistance shard, but I don't see it happening. Instead, I make a Lesser Acid Resistance shard and bound it to a ring. I made a Hide +3 shard and was planning on binding it to a robe but I couldn't. Intead I bound it to some goggles.

Some quests later, I found a +1 Ghost Touch Light Pick of Pure Good to use as a wraithbeater. I deconstructed the Ghost Touch Warhammer of Lesser Undead Bane. However, I realized after I deconstructed it that that I should have kept it as it was my skeleton beater. I crafted a +1 Enhancement Bonus shard and add it to my Lesser Fire Guard Full Plate of Invulnerability, which went to ML 5.

I gave the +2 Constitution shard another shot and I failed again. I deconstructed a bunch of items and I hit 16 Arcane, 13 Divine and 13 Elemental.

Divine crafting session
Gunthep just took his 4th Paladin level, so he could now cast spells and turn undead. I crafted the Superior Ardor I shard onto a Khopesh. I could go for a Power IV shard at 50% chance of success, but I haven't had much luck lately so I decided to do some leveling up first. I needed 55 xp to get to the next level. I looked at the 1/4 recipes and there were:
Seeker +2, Law, 46 xp, 50% chance (don't have the essences)
Resistance +1, Divine, 27 xp, 70% chance
Lionheart, Divine, 19 xp, 85% chance

Also, I plan on making a Hallowed shard (3/12 good, 24 xp, 75% chance). Finally, I think I will make a Power III shard (3/12 Divine, 19 xp, 85% chance) instead of the Power IV shard.

I pulled the lever for Resistance +1 and success! I then tried the Hallowed recipe and failed at a cost of 3 lesser. Tried again and success! 4 xp away from the next Divine level. I deconstruct the Resistance +1 shard and craft the Hallowed shard on to a Necklace, but I am still 3 xp away from level 14. I crafted a 4 Lesser Essence recipe (Sacred) to get me to the next level and then deconstructed it. I then tried the Power III recipe and was successful. I crafted it on to a ring. I could craft some more to try to get to level 15, but I don't have the essences for the next Divine shard I want, Proof Against Poison.

Elemental crafting session
Gunthep was 16 xp from level 14. I tried the Shields Spike recipe (1/4 Earth, 17 xp, 90% chance), was successful and went up to level 14. 62 xp to the next level. I tried the Reflex Save +2 recipe (1/4 Air, 25 xp, 75% chance) and success. I did it again successfully and again successfully to take me to level 15. After deconstructing those shards, I am 61 xp for level 16. Stability is the next recipe I want to use, but I don't have enough Earth essences so I will stop for now.

Arcane crafting session
I continued my trend of bring up my crafting levels by doing the follwoing 1/4 recipes:
Spell Penetration II (Arcane, 35 xp, 65% chance), successful
Spell Penetration II (Arcane, 31 xp, 70% chance), failure cost 1/1
Spell Penetration II (Arcane, 31 xp, 70% chance), successful
Spell Penetration II (Arcane, 28 xp, 75% chance), failure cost 1/1
Spell Penetration II (Arcane, 28 xp, 75% chance), successful, now level 17
+2 Enhancement Bonus (3/12 Arcane, 21 xp, 90% chance), successful
+2 Enhancement Bonus (3/12 Arcane, 19 xp, 95% chance), successful

That seemed like a good place to stop.

I found a +2 Warhammer, so I created a Lesser Undead Bane shard and made a +2 Warhammer of Lesser Undead Bane. Also, I found it easy to forget that I had my Superior Ardor I Khopesh equipped instead of my main Khopesh, so I made a Superior Ardor I Maul to use instead.

Suggested crafting approach based upon what I have learned
Here are the steps I recommend:
1. Build up a good supply of essences
2. Craft shards that use just 4 minor essences to get to level 12 crafting
3. Make any low level shards that you want
4. Craft shards that use 1 major and 4 minor essences to increase your crafting level
5. Craft level 18-25 shards that you want when you get to 70-80% chance of doing so