An Extensive Guide Into Tradeskills (Basic Version - Part One)

For those of you with many questions about tradeskills, you will love this guide. For those of you who have extensive knowledge about tradeskills, you may not benefit from this guide. However, this is meant to be an informative and helpful guide to Artisans and other, more specialized professions.

For those of you who already know the information within here and need to find more advanced information, please look at the following guide:

An Extensive Guide Into Tradeskills (Advanced Version - Part Two)
Harvesting Skills

It is very important and I can't state this enough -- If you are a new character, do not leave the isle until your Mining, Foresting, and Gathering skills are 40 or above. If you are doing culinary, make sure you throw fishing into that group as well. Having a 40 in those skills will allow you to harvest tier 2 resource nodes. While on the isle, make sure you look at your skills (Press the L key to view your skills) and pay close attention to the min/max numbers. If your maximum does not reach greater than 40, then you need to raise your artisan level higher by crafting. If you leave the isle before you max these skills, you will be having a very difficult time raising these in the city of your choice. Newbie areas are almost always over camped and many are difficult to navigate. It would benefit you by staying on the isle and getting familiar with crafting and harvesting before leaving.

Key Skills

Gathering: Affects gathering from roots, shrubs and plant types. If you need roots and plants, this skill is very important. Currently if you pickup a shiny object from the ground (the ones with the question marks) you gain an automatic point in Gathering. Gathering is one of the easier skills to raise initially. In order to raise it, concentrate on roots and plants.

Mining: Affects mining from rocks and sand shale rock outcroppings. This allows you to mine the necessary ingredients you need for many of the mineral items. If you plan on being "any" type of artisan archetype this is necessary. It affects many recipe formulas from tempers to ink, to buckles and armoring, etc.

Foresting: Affects the ability to harvest from elm, maple, and forest type logs. This allows you to gather wood which is necessary for many recipes.

Trapping: Unfortunately, this is the only ability you cannot raise on the Isle of Refuge. Trapping gives you the skill necessary to harvest from "Dens". This allows you to trap creatures and remove animal pelts that can be used in a variety of formulas. Because there are no den items on the Isle, you can't raise this skill there. It has to be done in the city. The key again, is to reach 40 for this skill in the newbie backyard areas of the different districts/villages. Peat Bog, Forest Ruins, etc. are where you should start.

Fishing: If you plan on doing culinary work, fishing will be useful. It is also one of the easiest skills to work with. Schools of Fish are rampant on the isle and so you should begin there if you plan on starting. Again, 40 is the number you are looking for here.

Tier Numbers

* 1 - (<=) 50 (Up to 9th level Artisan)
* 2 - (Gathering (46), Mining (40), Trapping (40), Foresting (40) - 100) (10th - 19th level Sub-Type, Scholar, Craftsman, Outfitter)
* 3 - (Foresting (96), Mining (90), Gathering (90), Trapping (90) - 150) (20th - 29th, for Sub-Type, Alchemist, Jeweler, Sage, Tailor, etc.)
* 4 - (haven't found this out yet) (30th - 39th for Sub-Type)
* 5 - (haven't found this out yet) (40th - 49th for Sub-Type)

There is much speculation over the starting point to tier 3. I have heard 75, 78, 80. However, the average has been 80 so that is the information I am using here. The end numbers are the peak numbers for those nodes. This means at those peak numbers you should only fail at harvesting them by 1% or less. The minimum numbers listed are the starting values necessary to begin harvesting from those nodes.

Crafting Skills and Recipes

Many people have asked me how the skills work, so I thought I would go into this with a little detail. This is very important as most people completely overlook this part of trade skills and it affects their understanding of them.

Each recipe has a lot of information on it. Let me explain what these are:

* Recipe Name: the recipe name
* ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Process: the type of recipe created.
* ---(Process)Refine = A recipe that usually requires a raw resource such as roots, wood, metals. Refine recipes are usually necessary in Interim recipes.
* ---(Process)Interim = A recipe that requires you to make a refined recipe first. Once you make a "refine" process recipe, you can make the Interim. Interim are usually components (mostly primary components) that are necessary in "finish" recipes.
* ---(Process)Finish = The finished recipe. A finish recipe usually requires at least 1 to 2 refine recipes and at least 1 interim recipe. It is the final item.
* ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Level: The level of difficulty for the recipe. This does not pertain to when you can scribe the recipe.
* ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Knowledge: The primary skill of the recipe. Knowledge skills are Alchemy, Arcana, Culinary, Heavy Armoring, Light Armoring, Runecraft, Weaponry, and Woodworking. These skills "automatically" level up when you level up as an artisan type. You do not need to raise these skills and they will always show min/max as being peaked. These are the foundation skills to tradeskilling.
* ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Technique: These skills are the primary skills necessary to be successful with tradeskills. Each technique is an integral part of the Knowledge that governs it. They are: Artificing, Artistry, Chemistry, Fletching, Metalworking, Tailoring, Scribing. Sculpting, etc. The key to remember with these skills is that the minimum will not be equal to the maximum and you need to work on these. If you look at a recipe you will see what type of technique it uses. So pay close attention to that. This will let you know what recipe you are working on and what skill it will raise. So, if you are concentrating on chemistry, then if the technique has it listed that is what will eventually be raised using it.
* ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Device: The device you need to use in order to create the recipe.
* ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Primary Ingredient: This is a very important ingredient. This governs the "quality" and also how "successful" the recipe can become in the finish process. If the quality of your primary ingredient is not the best, then the potential for your recipe quality will not be the best. I will go more into this below in the section called: Recipe Quality Types.
* ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Secondary Ingredients or Components: These do not have to be "high" quality. In fact they can be horrible and still not affect the outcome of the recipe. So, when you research a recipe, make sure to pay close attention to these components so that you don't go overboard trying to make the best when it really isn't needed. Only pirmary ingredients affect the quality of the recipe.
* ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Fuel: The recipe only states fuel but if you try to create the item, you will see the real name of the fuel type needed. To make it simple for you, you basically need the following fuels for each machine: Sewing or Loom (fillament), woodworking or sawhorse (sand paper), forge (coal), alchemy mixing table (candles), jewelry work bench (coal), scribes engraved desk (incense), culinary keg (coal).

Now then, this is a lot of information to take in. However, if you read it and re-read it, you'll figure out why its important to understand the recipe you are using and working with. Unfortunately, knowing recipes isn't going to make you a master at your work. You need to understand more than this to get yourself in business. Let's take a look at some more things.

Recipe Quality

Ever wondered why you see 4 bars when you start to create the recipe you are working with? These are basically called "quality bars". The bottom most bar is the best quality you can make for the recipe you are working with. Only, some people are giving others false information on these bars. I've heard time and again that they are affected by your skill and not by both your primary ingredients and your skill. Here's how it breaks down:

* Quality of Item Created .. is governed by .. (Primary Ingredient in Recipe)
* Success of Quality ..is governed by.. (Skill of Technique being used for Recipe)

In other words, the primary ingredient affects whether you even see those 4 quality bars. However, your technique skill governs how fast or quickly you can succeed at getting to that bar and finished the recipe with quality. So, as you can see, both of these govern the success and quality of the recipe. Not one or the other, but both. So, then, how do we get the 4 bars?

Each primary ingredient for "any" recipe must be the best quality in order to get the 4 quality bars. This starts all the way down at, yep you might have guessed it, the Refine process. Let's work backwards for a moment and give an example.

Your finish recipe (let's use a Elm Wand for example), requires an Elm Stave (primary ingredient), threadbare fletching (secondary), lead ornament (secondary), and sand paper (fuel).

The only ingredient that matters with regards to quality is the Elm Stave. All other ingredients can be less than optimal quality and not affect the outcome of the recipe being created. So, let's take the Elm Stave and continue breaking it down. In order for the Elm Stave to be the best quality, it has to be analyzed as well.

The elm stave requires the following: Refined Elm (primary ingredient), Chloro Resin (secondary), and sand paper (fuel). Again, the only ingredient we need to worry about here is the refined elm. The rest of the ingredients do not need to be optimal quality. So, let's continue breaking down the recipe using Refined Elm.

The refined elm (actually called Elm Lumber) requires the following: Raw Elm (primary), Chloro Resin (secondary), and sand paper (fuel). Now then, whenever you are working with a refine recipe, you will always start with 4 bars. Refine recipes require raw natural resources so there is no way you can affect how mother nature works. Therefore, the refine recipes will always give you the ability to make 4 quality bars. So, let's see how this works.

* Refine Recipe (refined elm) - has 4 quality bars that you can work towards. If you do not make a 4 bar item, then the next recipe level will not be able to make a 4 bar item.
* Interim Recipe (Elm Stave) - only has 4 quality bars if the refined elm in the refine recipe was 4-bar quality. If it was 3, then all you get is the possibility of 3-bars.
* Finish Recipe (Elm Wand) - only has 4 quality bars if the Elm Stave is a 4-bar quality item. If it was 3, then all you get is the possibility of 3- bars.

But what about the other components? They could be crude for all we care. They are necessary ingredients in the swing of things but the do not affect the outcome of the recipe being worked on. So, make sure that you always try to make the best quality but it only matters with the primary ingredient.

The Crafting Process (Reactions and Buffs)

Okay, so now we are at the nitty gritty and are ready to make our item. The first thing we must learn about is reactions.

For every crafting knowledge there are 3 types of reactions. Getting to know these can be a learning process. If you open up your tradeskill book (by hitting K for knowledge), you will see a tradeskills tab. Clicking on this will reveal your reactions (some call them buffs).

As you progress in levels, these will eventually upgrade. When they upgrade, you will have to replace your crafting bar with the new reactions. For now, let's work with the first sets of each. They are the following:

Alchemy

* Experiment
* Theory
* Reaction

Arcana

* Spellbinding
* Notation
* Lettering

Craftsmanship

* Dovetail Joint
* Concentrate 01
* Metallurgy

Culinary

* Constant Heat
* Awareness
* Seasoning

Heavy Armoring

* Angle Joint
* Strikes
* Isothermic

Light Armoring

* Nimble
* Stitching
* Knots

Weaponry

* Anneal
* Hardening
* Tempering

Woodworking

* Cutting
* Measure
* Handiwork

Each of the events you receive while you are crafting, correspond icon to icon with the reaction you give. These reactions can also be used as temporary buffs that increase either duration or progress for the item. However, the reactions come at a cost to your power. The duration and progress listings can be found at EQ2-Artisans.com but some of the tables are not finished yet. When an event is encountered, push the correct corresponding reaction to counter it.

There are two bars at the top which are yellow and blue. Yellow is durability and Blue is overall progress. When the yellow bar reaches nothing, the recipe fails. When the blue bar reaches the end, the recipe is finished.

There are more colored bars throughout the "quality bar" sections of the recipe. These are the light blue bar that moves from left to right in the recipe and is a progress bar. It shows you how far the quality bar is progressing to reach the next quality. The green bar that goes from right to left is a failure/durability bar. Everytime it ticks down to the far left of the quality bar, it causes that quality bar to disappear and it starts to work on the next quality bar.

This may sound a little confusing but eventually you will get the hang of it. There are tactics you can do that help you to finish up the items quickly. You can push the reaction/buff buttons that correspond to progress to push the recipe along faster. You can also use them in addition to countering events. It is tricky but some people call these types of crafters, "proactive crafters". These crafters constantly push the buff buttons to make a finished product. While there is nothing wrong with this, some reaction buffs have a power cost. So, you may find yourself greatly lacking power to work on the next recipe.

If you have a particularly important recipe that is right at your level and difficult to get better quality on, you can button mash. I'm not going to explain button mashing because it really is something you have to get used to on your own. However, I will explain one important feature. That is cancelling.

Cancelling

If you cancel the item (before the progress has finished on the very top most quality bar) all you lose is the fuel component used. Your ingredients will not be lost. So, if you start to craft and you suddenly get 3 durability failures in a row and realize you will never make it to pristine or equivalent, simply cancel the recipe creation if it hasn't reached the end of the first quality bar. This will save you headache and time at the cost of one fuel component.

Damaging Yourself

If you fail to counter an event by pressing one of the tradeskill reactions, you will take damage to yourself. Damage can be in the form of physical, mental, or both. This is why you cannot go afk while you craft. I have seen folks die next to me for going afk and not countering the events. So, be careful. There is nothing worse than dying because you got attacked by large splinters at the scribes desk! It's embarrassing!

Upgrading Tradeskill Reactions

As you gain in artisan levels, your reactions will automatically upgrade.

An important thing to remember about Tradeskill Reactions is that they use the same "consider system" as everything else in EQ II. When you see skills that are green colored when you hover over their names, look for similar icons that are orange or higher colored. Replacing these reactionary skills greatly increases the ability to increase your "Technique Skill Points". So, make sure you check for the new upgrades in your Knowledge book under the tradeskill tabs as you gain levels.

States Now Change with new upgrades

Crafting Styles

Once you upgrade your icons, re-familiarize yourself with the states. States are progress and durability. For many reaction buff icons, first tier icons affect "progress" and second tier icons affect "durability". However, some states will not be this way. Please "examine" your reaction buffs and make certain your tier reactiosn work in the same fashion. If they do not, you will have to adjust some of the guidelines followed below with your own variations. You can combine both buttons to work on both progress and durability as you need to have it in the recipe. This allows you more versatility when working with a recipe. The next set of icons will presumably change back to progress.

However, this also means you can now rethink how to work your recipe.

So we now have crafting styles.

* SPEED: Some may still want to use all progress states. This will give you less quality items but for those items you don't need great quality, these icons work better. In addition, it speeds along the recipe so you can make ingredients fast. If you have refine recipes that are not primary ingredients or going to be involved in primary roles within ingredients, you can use progress to speed the recipes along at a fast pace.
*
* BALANCE: Some will want to use a mixture of both to offset progress and durability during the recipe creation process. This is a more balanced approach to crafting and will give you optimal ability to speed along as you need to and also to make good quality items.
*
* QUALITY: And then you will have persons that want to use all durability states. These persons want to concentrate on a slower process while making great quality items. The slower progress but high durability allows you to do this. This is a great way to make "primary" ingredients. If you need great quality for the primary ingredient, concentrate on quality.

All in all, make sure you re-familiarize yourself with the new states of all new icons. Using icons that have higher "consider" generally cost more power to use. However, the benefits to using them are that you increase your technical skills faster. So, it's up to you how you craft and how you work with the recipe. There are many styles to work with.

Societies

**NEW** : Per Beghn, the societies have a bug currently that is being addressed. After it is addressed, you will be able to join (1) wholesale society and (1) special tradeskill society at the same time. So, you will be able to join both. When this bug is fixed, I will update this to note it. Until then be weary and you might want to stay in the society you are currently collecting status points for.

This is a part of the guide that I thought was necessary and would answer a lot of questions that some people have in reference to them. It also will cover the basics of how to complete the necessary steps to becoming a Scholar, Craftsman, or Outfitter.
Wholesale Societies

These societies are located in all districts/villages within the city of your choosing. You can only join one of these wholesale societies at a time. Upon joining, you have access to the society. Once inside, you have the ability to do "harvesting quests" which, when completed, will help the status of the society you are a part of and also help your own status points with them. Completing these quests allow you to gain money and usually it's good money at higher levels. The type of resources that you need to harvest is dependant on your level as an Artisan. So, make sure you keep up those harvesting skills.

As your wholesale society gains more levels and status, more items are sold on the merchant located within. You are allowed to join the wholesale society at any artisan level.

Bugs:

Currently there are bugs with the wholesaler broker located inside. Sometimes, items are there and other times they are not. Sometimes after refreshing the screen, everything disappears.

Specialized Tradeskill Socieites

These societies are specialized for Outfitter, Craftsman, and Scholar. They are located throughout the districts/villages but you must be at least 10th level in the class you are trying to join. Failure to be 10th level and certified will cause you not to be able to join. You are able to join one specialized tradeskill society at one time.

How to get 10th level and become certified

So you have the necessary experience to reach level 10 but you don't know how to become certified? For Qeynosians you need to visit Alfred Ironforge in the corner of the wood building being worked at in qeynos harbor. I do not know who you have to talk to in Freeport. I'm sure someone may follow up with that information here. Once you speak to the NPC and state your profession, you are now certified.

But wait.. I'm still level 9!! How do I get level 10?

Go into the Wholesale Society and craft any item that gives you experience. As soon as you gain experience, your levels for 10 and even 11 will come. You can now join the specialized tradeskill society.

Tradeskill Societies offer you recipe creation quests. These always involve a "finish process" recipe. You usually have to make 10 of these. Once made you get quite a bit of coin, status for yourself and the society, and the ability to access more items. You can buy all the books you need from the merchant in the tradeskill society because wholesale societies only have books up to 9th level.

Bugs:

Currently there are bugs with the broker located inside. Sometimes, items are there and other times they are not. Sometimes after refreshing the screen, everything disappears.

Making a Profit

Yes, we all want to know how we can make a profit. Well, let me give you a general outline for success.

Refine Recipes: Try not to sell these to merchants. Sell them to players or use them. They do not give you great returns when selling to merchants only. It would be much better financially for you to use these in interim recipes and then see if you make a profit.

Interim Recipes: You can make money on interim recipes at a merchant. However, I would only sell to a merchant if you do not have a need for these any longer or just have extra and need to clear some room. You also might sell interim recipe items to a merchant to help fund your expenses for finish recipe items.

Finish Recipes: You can make money on these via the tradeskill society quests, from players, or from merchants. You will make more money selling these to players.

How to Charge and Be Successful

Be consistent in your pricing and whatever you decide to do. If you price using a multiplier or you enjoy working the market using high and low scenarios, as long as you are consistent in what you do, people will have an understanding for who you are as a seller.

Price the item at a merchant to get a base to work from.

Price the finish item at a merchant. If the merchant says I'll buy that from you for 3 silver then you now have a base to work from. You can alter the base amount in whatever way you choose. Remember, it's your item and your coin. You should do whatever you feel is necessary to make your marketing approach a happy one.

Things You Should Know

This section is also an important section. Yes, we've all heard the screams of interdependency between professions, however, it really isn't all that bad if you follow some important notes here. These are the things "all" artisans should do after attaining level 10+.

Find out what your other interdependent artisans need from you.

As a scholar, craftsman and outfitters need tempers and oils. So, I always make sure that I make at least 2 or 3 extra batches of oils and tempers before I quit for the night. I then go to the inn room and put them up for sale for those that need them. This allows them to get their work done. And, if they do the same, it allows me to get my work done. You see, if I want to make spells then I need to have paper and quills. Craftsman who sell paper and quills will make great friends with scholars.

Trade components for components you need.

Yes, you can also trade components with other interdependent archetypes to make sure that you get what you need. Sometimes, this is more viable and helps you out. You can also gather all the components necessary, hand them to the person that needs to make them and pay them a "service fee". This is, a fee for their services. It helps them out greatly.

Links to good resources

EQ2-Artisans

Rare Books

Rare books can be found off mobs, usually group mobs. These books give you access to rare recipes that include adept and equivalent items and spells/skills. Books are very important and there are 12 of them in Tier 1, many in Tier 2, Tier 3, etc. I will not list all of these books but EQ2-Artisan has the list there. These book types cannot be bought but they can be traded and sold.

Because some of the books are not listed at EQ2-Artisans, I'm providing the list for tier 1 rare books here. I have all of them, personally.

* Artisan Advanced Alchemy Volume 7
* Artisan Advanced Alchemy Volume 8
* Artisan Advanced Alchemy Volume 9
* Artisan Arcana Scrolls Volume 9
* Artisan Cloth Armor Volume 8
* Artisan Refining Volume 4 (for rare refining recipes)
* Artisan Components volumes 5&6 (combined book - for rare components needed in finish recipes and requires refining volume 4)
* Artisan Escucheon Volume 6
* Artisan Leather Armor Volume 7
* Artisan Machanist's Armor Volume 7
* Artisan Stratagem Scrolls volume 9
* Artisan Weapons Volume 8

These can be found in "all" newbie zones from group mobs and drop from chests. However, it is much easier to obtain these from the Isle of Refuge and they drop in chests from Goblin Protectors. Named mobs do not drop these books because they are not part of the loot order in their treasure cycles. I hope this helps.

Helpful Tips Section

How do I see what the recipe item will give me stat wise once I complete the item? Like, how about a ring for instance?

* Open up your recipe book by pressing the " B " key.
* Find the recipe you want to learn about.
* Right-click the recipe and choose examine. The recipe and ingredients window will come up.
* Notice the image of the recipe in the bottom left hand corner? Right-click on that icon/image and choose examine on that icon window.
* Voila - you now should see what the final recipe would be once created. And all the statistics are listed right here.

The recipe I'm creating can use two different raw ingredients. How do I force it to use one of the ingredients and not the other?

* Even though there is a change button, this does not solve the problem. Ingredients are taken from smaller stack amounts first. So here's how you do it so it works all the time. Simply split the stack.
* Example. Your formula can use Raw Tubers OR Raw Maple. You want to force it to use the Raw Maple. Currently you have 17 Raw Tuber and 20 Raw Maple. When you go to craft it only pulls from the tuber. Here's what you do:
* Split the Maple stack to 16. You now have two stacks of Maple (16 and 4) and both stacks are now smaller than the Tuber Stack of (17). So, when you craft, it will use the stack of 4 maple first and then once finished, use the stack of 16 maple second. Voila, you now forced it to use only one type.

Final thoughts

I hope this helps you out and if you have any questions or want to say hello to me, I'm Padashar on Antonia Bayle. Take care and happy tradeskilling!

Message Edited by Padashar on 11-29-2004 10:53 AM