Trade Skills General Questions

What are Tradeskills?
Tradeskills skills allow your characters to create various items. There are many items that can be created of different types. These items carry added stats and come in all level ranges. The higher the level, the better and more powerful the item.

Currently there are 4 Tradeskills:

* Armor - Creation of all sorts of plate armor, chain armor and shields.
* Jewelry - Creation of bracelets, earrings, necklaces and rings.
* Tailoring - Creation of cloth armor, robes.
* Weapons - Creation of both 1H and 2H weapons.

Every character can use any Tradeskill, but some classes may have an easier time using certain skills. There are no restrictions based on race or class in learning the skills.

Levels
Each tradeskill has a level and rank that you can attain within it. Each level is made up of 10 ranks. Therefore, you can be Level 2, Rank 1 (hereafter called 2.1) in Jewelry, while 9.1 in Armor, 1.2 in Tailoring and 5.7 in Weapons. How far you progress in each skill is up to the amount of time and tunar you invest in that skill. The only restriction in gaining levels within a skill, is what level (1-60) you currently are in the game, as follows:

Your Level /Skill Level/Items Level
1/1/1-5
6/2/6-10
11/3/11-15
16/4/16-20
21/5/21-25
26/6/26-30
31/7/31-35
38/8/36-40
41/9/41-45
46/10/46-50
51/11/51-56
56/12/56-60

Every time you successfully create an item, you get experience for that skill. (This XP is only for that particular skill and does not affect to your characters level.)

How are items created and what do I need?
There are two ways to create Tradeskill items. Experimentation is for creating new recipes, while the Recipe Book is used for recreating items you already have recipes for.

Each item requires 2-4 'components' to create.

# Armor requires a mold and a metal with an optional gem at level 3+.
# Jewelry requires a mold, a metal and a gem.
# Tailoring a pattern and material with an optional gem at level 3+.
# Weapons require a mold and a metal with an optional gem at level 3+.

Each skill also has a crafting tool that you have to equip in order to use your skill. Armor requires an Armorsmithing Hammer, Jewelry requires a Jeweler's Kit, Tailoring requires a Tailor's Kit and Weapons require a Weaponsmithing Hammer. There are different levels of tools. The higher the tool's level, the higher an item you can make. For instance, a level 3 hammer will not allow you to make level 8 items.

Experimentation
In the Experimentation window, select a mold and a metal (and a gem if appropriate), and add them to the right side of the screen. You do this by pressing X when the cursor is next to the item and then pressing X again to add the item. Then click Square to combine the items. You will either create a new item, fail to create the item, get a message that the items do not make anything or get a message saying that you are not high enough level. If you receive the last message, check that you are using the correct metals and that you are using the correct level tool.

If you create an item for the first time, you will be asked if you wish to add the recipe to your book. You may save the recipe by choosing Yes. However, there is a maximum amount of total recipes that you can have. It is easy to hit this maximum save recipes for every level.

If the items do not make anything, no amount of repetitions will make it work. Simply pick a different combination of materials and try again.

If you fail to create the item, you will lose your mold and metal, but not any gems that you put into the recipe. Try again until you succeed.

Recipe Book
Well first you need to Experiment (see above) and save some recipes to your book. Once the recipe is in your book, you can simply select the recipe through the Recipe Book screen, and it automatically selects the items and attempts to create the item. You may also check your level.rank on this screen for each of the Tradeskills.

Why does crafting an item fail sometimes?
Your chance of success is based on several things - the level of the item, the rarity of the item, your skill level, your stats (as below), your rest status (you cannot make too many items too fast), and a little luck. It is important to try to maximize your stats for the Tradeskill you are doing. It is more important to max the primary stat before you max the secondary. For example, 300 primary and 50 secondary is better than 200 primary and 200 secondary. One tip here is to buy jewelry and armor that have stats for the Tradeskill you are trying to use. For example, if you are crafting jewelry, then equip items that will increase your intelligence.

Armor: Stamina, then Strength
Jewelry: Intelligence, then Charisma
Tailoring: Dexterity, then Wisdom
Weapons: Strength, then Dexterity

Is this process expensive?
Yes. To get to level 10 in Armor or Weapons takes about 500k-600k of tunar. To get to level 10 in Jewelry takes about 2 million tunar! Be aware of this. Also, be aware that using gems reduces your overall cost, as you get more experience for gem-laden items, and they sell for more afterwards too.

Are crafted items better than regular rares?
Sometimes. Often crafted items have higher Dmg and AC than some rares, but the greatest advantage of crafted items is that it can be made anytime you have the components, the required skill, and the tunar. The item created is always exactly what you expect it to be.