Crafting Guide auf engl (Bitte verdeutschen =))
Also ich mach diesen Thread hier absichtlich im Offtopic, weil ich will dass ihr mir das hier aufs deutsche übersetzt !!!! SOFORT !! :-D :-D :-D
:help: Also wenns jemand langweilig is .... ran ans Leder :help:
Crafting Technique- Pristines
Copyright 2005 by Iaria of Antonia Bayle server
How to make a pristine ‘every’ time on Everquest 2
Version 1.0
Introduction
There is an ‘essential’ technique to even the simplest crafting that works
for every single trade skill- even though it is implemented in slightly
different ways and requires some practice and style to get ‘just right’. It
took me talking to a variety of people and then step-by-step implementing
the advice and using trial and error to gradually discover the layers of
this. Once I fully understood it, I realised that it is actually very simple
to understand when explained correctly. So why, then was there no simple
guide or explanation? I decided to test the theory. I went into the game and
when I bumped into the first polite, roleplaying crafter harvesting in the
wood near Castleview I asked them if they would like help in the art of
crafting. Then, out of character, I explained step-by-step the entire
process I am about to explain here: I basically wrote a guide in-game.
Before I was even done, they had said “This opens up a whole new world! I
never imagined…” They easily could take it from there, but I wrapped up all
the details. They took it, and used it well. So the question remained: why
isn’t there a guide? I had my suspicions. I went into the crafting channel
and explained that I could make a pristine almost every time without
exception and was glad to share it. I was immediately “shot down”- some did
not know, and were curious, those who did know either outright denied it or
they attempted to nitpick. “Not EVERY time…” Finally, in a tell, someone
explained, ‘Yes, okay, I know you can do it I do it too. But you shouldn’t
tell everyone.” Why?
I believe in a freedom of knowledge, and in helping everyone to learn to
better understand how to live in Norrath. Those who do not want this shared
(that is, almost everyone- those who share it, only share it on a small
scale) are worried about 1) Profit. The less that make pristine, the more
money for those who can do it 99 percent of the time (if you want to
estimate down, let’s say 95 percent of the time at least). Whatever the
percentage is- it works well, and many don’t know it. 2) Nerfing. They are
afraid that if everyone “figures out” the system, it will be changed. I
think the system, however, is difficult enough- and if understanding it
means they will change it, it is unfortunate however I would like to think
their goal is improving it and not simply making it unpleasant. After all,
if it was too hard or unpleasant, nobody would play- and they don’t want
that.
Since I feel the system will only be improved with further knowledge, and I
do not think good competition will be unhealthy at all, and most importantly
since I would have appreciated the help of a clear guide like this as I
learned crafting I will share with you what I have learned. Now, this varies
a little in implimentation from craft to craft AND it takes a little
experience and skill to really “make it almost every time”- if you make a
mistake or get ‘lazy’ because it takes too long to make a “white item” (your
level) you could end up loosing the pristine. Also, there are undoubtedly
further techniques I have NOT learned. I invite people to share these with
me if they like- and if not, please realise that my guide is just a starting
point for everyone to begin from. If you already know all that I have in
here- good for you, this guide is not for you but for those who do not.
I have “figred out” everything here myself- that is, the basic technique of
keeping pristine. I got helpful advice and tips along the way, but nobody
“put it together” for me like I am doing for you. There are points where
someone gave me a piece here, a piece there, and by using these tips I
refined my work. I try to give credit where I can. At this point I have a
level 19 alchemist and level 15 scribe, so my understanding will come from
this background. However, I have used this technique with food makers, and
carpentry as well as beyond.
What is it?
Okay, I do not like to build suspense. I’ll summarize what this big “trick”
is immediately and let you decide if you want the details. All it is, is
understanding how the buttons work properly to allow you to balance the
green bar (durability- I will use the term green bar however, since I find
it most simple) and the blue bar (progress) and let you reach completion
without loosing the pristine level (the highest level of your item). To some
extent it requires some skill- but the very beginner could still keep it up
at pristine if they did not mind it taking longer. The real skill is in
trying to balance speed, the difficulty of the item you are making, and the
chance that you might hit a “mistake” and the green bar could shoot down.
The amount it shoots down varies depending on your level and profession, as
well as skill with the particular trade. So this is why I refer to being
“lazy”. If you know that the item is hard and the risk of loosing green bar
is high, then you can ‘play it safe’ by doing nothing but raising your
durability non-stop. This will mean completion will take a VERY long time
potentially- but it will also ensure a pristine item when finished.
This is it. This is the ‘big secret’. It is not hard, but it can be hard to
figure out without someone to guide you. I will gladly, now, be that guide
and try to explain the details. You will need a basic understanding of
crafting already to use this guide properly. If you cannot make items
already and do not at least basically understand how the system works then
there are other more simple guides to start with.
Part 1- You Really Push my Buttons
I did not realise until around level 15 or so that there were more than just
three buttons for my skill. We must begin by explaining what the buttons are
and how they work. For some of you, simply understanding the buttons better
is all that is necessary- you can take it from here. Many of us just don’t
realise they have a purpose- my first understanding was that it was kind of
like paper rock scissors. You chose the symbol that fit the problem, fixed
it, and life went on. That is only the most basic level of crafting,
however!
There are three basic button types, and I will create names to use here-
though I am sure there are many other kinds, some official and some not. To
find out which button of your particular tradeskill is which, alternate
click on the button and examine its properties. It clearly explains what it
does.
First, for terms, each Teir is defined by level 1-9 at Teir 1; 10-19 Teir 2;
20-29 Teir 3, etc. You start with three buttons that are given to you for
Teir 1. When you reach Teir 2, however, you gain three more buttons- same
‘sign’ on them, different purpose. Each teir, however, uses these three
types of buttons below.
Power: The “power” button is the button that uses only your magic power, and
the result is that it increases blue bar (Teir 1, Teir 3, etc) OR green bar
(Teir 2, Teir 4, etc. skill) progress by a certain amount (until Teir 3,
this amount is 9- at least for my alchemist). This is the ONLY button that
uses magic power, and the only button that has NO other consequences.
Chance: The “chance” button is the button that increases your blue or green
bar progress, but costs you a chance of success reduction (3% at Teir 1 and
Teir 2). If you don’t succeed, the result is that an error can happen and
suddenly bring down either your blue bar, green bar, or both at the same
time. At higher levels, this is a major problem and worry.
Trade: The “trade” button, quite simply, increases the chosen bar in
exchange for around twice as much from the opposing bar. So, I might end up
using trade and get 10 progress on my green bar, but loose twenty progress
from my blue bar. This might not be immediately apparent, because that is
+10 to whatever you would already get added/subtracted to that bar, and –20
from whatever you would already be added/subtracted from the other bar.
There are three buttons, but TWO general types. What I will call Blue Bar
(progress, the first three you ever get) and Green Bar (durability, which
you first get at level 10 in crafting). Blue bar buttons raise, of course,
your blue bar according to the rules given above for each button. Green bar
is the nifty new discovery that adds a whole new dimension (that many sadly
miss) to crafting- it raises your green bar! This is the key to this guide-
because it is keeping the green bar from falling below the pristine level
that allows you to make pristine. The Teir 2 buttons are the first green bar
buttons, and the first to allow you to control the ‘fate’ of your item being
pristine or not.
Each teir you will get three more buttons, and they alternate. Teir 1 is
blue bar, Teir 2 green bar, teir 3 blue bar, teir 4 green bar, teir 5 blue
bar, etc. Each time they cycle, however, they also become more powerful to
my understanding. This guide is designed to help you as soon as you are
level 10 or above. If you are not, you should not fret- reaching level 10 is
very easy, and if there isn’t a simple guide up to help then you should let
me know. I made level 10 on one character simply by cooking food. I knew I
would not be a cook, but it does not really matter up until that point- and
food ingredients are very easy to get, since there is less competition for
them. So cook until you are level 9 and cannot go any further- then choose
your profession at the docks and start using this technique after you turn
10.
Part 2- Pieces of the Puzzle
Ticker
You will find quickly there is a pattern. Every so often, your bars either
raise or lower. We will call this a “tick”. Every tick, your progress is
re-evaluated and goes up or down. Within this tick is the time you can use
your buttons. Now, what I did not know is that you can use MORE than one
button at a time- up to three. Simply press them one at a time in a row. I
set my hotkeys so that my keys up in the following fashion, as an example.
1- Green Power
2- Green Chance
3- Green Trade
4- Blue Power
5- Blue Chance
6- Blue Trade
I know one crafter who never has, and never will, used Blue Trade. Why?
Because it is the riskiest gamble of them all if you are worried in the
slightest about your green bar. I only use Blue Trade when I am making a
very easy item and not worried about the green bar dropping dramatically.
There are difficult items you may make where using ANY blue keys, instead of
constantly using the Green buttons, will result in a dramatic green bar
drop. So, as you can tell, in those cases uses Blue Trade would be quite
stupid, not to put too fine a point on it.
Timers
All Power buttons are on the exact same timer, as are all Chance, and all
Trade. The timer lasts one tick (as defined above). This means you have a
choice each tick- you may use either Green Power or Blue Power, Green Chance
or Blue Chance, but NOT both. You can use up to all three each tick.
Potentially, you could even mix them up (though I haven’t really done this
much myself- I usually choose one color (blue or green bar) needed per
tick).
Problem Events
Problem events do not occur every tick, obviously. When they do, they happen
at the VERY beginning of the tick. So, if you wait to see if one appear
before pressing your two or three buttons, you can avoid mis-pressing a
button and having it blow up in your face. Thus there is the pattern you
develop- tick, check for problems, fix problem OR press Power, Chance,
Trade; rinse and repeat as necessary.
Craft Variances
I did not personally know this until a day or two ago when I spoke to
another person about their “style”. Each profession and work- forging,
versus apothecary, versus alchemy has a slightly different ‘style’ and feel
to it. Doing scribing and alchemy I have just yesterday noticed this. Sudden
drops in one or both bars occur much more frequently in scribing than in
alchemy- there are some risks you might be able to take easily in one, but
would kill off your pristine very quickly in another. So you will find that
perhaps in your craft you can use Blue Power and Blue Chance a lot, or even
all three Blue’s… but in another trade, if you use Blue Chance you will
start a “chain disaster” rut that you can’t get out of easily. What this
means is, as I was told, in some crafts once you start a ‘mishap’ chain, it
continues for a while and can be quite fatal to your work. This is a good
example of a craft variance.
Ruts and Sprees
The “climate” of your crafting changes from item to item based on the random
numbers generated- but usually the changed ‘mood’ will settle in for a short
time. You may find for several goes at a time things seem to fail more than
usual, then things seem to be kind of smooth for several goes, and other
times things keep going up, up, up. This is different than skill or item
related ups and downs- this is the ‘climate’, as I will call it, and it
changes regularly regardless of your item or skill (though more dramatically
depending on those factors). When doing a hard item you may find that the
green bar goes down relatively slowly- perhaps you can even use blue bar
skills. But watch out- the climate could drastically change the next time,
and suddenly you are constantly loosing green bar and must press those green
buttons like a madman to avoid loosing pristine.
Invisible Green Bar and Never-ending Blue
The Green bar and blue bar both have their own ‘secrets’. The green bar’s
secret is that once it hits the top- it keeps going. You just can’t see it.
It will go as high as you want it to go- minus the occasional bumps and
lowerings. If you are doing a really hard item, you can build up a HUGE
buffer of green- and your blue bar may not really go up much at all while
you do it using the Green Steoid method (shown below). Then, once it is up
high enough, begin to try another method (either blue buttons only, or maybe
just Green Power and Green Chance and stop using Green Trade which will
lower the blue bar).
The blue bar’s secret? It never goes below zero, and there is no consequence
for keeping it there. So they balance out. The green bar can go far, far
above the top- the blue bar can never go below the bottom. I might note that
some people fear that if this becomes too commonly known, that the
developers will change this and cause some consequence for the blue bar
hitting 0. I personally think crafting is still pretty difficult, and that
doing this would be a mistake on their part- it takes a LOT of work and
skill to make a decent living and crafting even with the little advantages I
’ve discovered. I think I, and many others, would probably consider quitting
or lessening our time with the game if they made it more difficult or added
more hindrances.
Putting it all together
The big question to ask now, that I would ask myself, is “Which buttons do I
press?” Well, upon taking all the elements I gave you above, I could just
say “figure it out”. Quite truthfully, there are a LOT of different ways to
do it- and each craft varies as I said above. Let’s look at basic
techniques. First of all, usually, when I face a “problem tick” I will JUST
press the button that fixes it, then wait until the next to continue my
cycle. If the problem button happens to be the beginning of my three-button
cycle I will go ahead and keep it up. This is a technique too- sometimes I
will press only green buttons, to keep my green bar up, but when a problem
occurs I will fix it with a blue button. Play with it.
Green Steroid- A common and very practical technique to keep your green bar
up. After the tick, if there is no ‘problem’ to fix, press all three
buttons. I usually press them in my preset order- Power, Chance, Trade.
Press them individually, one at a time, and you won’t “miss” any. You’ll get
a feel for the speed you can press them at- too fast, and you miss one, but
you can easily press them all and still have time remaining in the tick. If
you “loose your rhythm” and find that all the buttons won’t recharge in a
tick- rest that tick, then start again. The Green Steroid is the only “safe
steroid”. Why? Because if your green bar goes too low, you will loose item
quality PERMANENTLY; BUT if your blue bar goes too low you can always bring
it back up! You can lower your blue bar to 0 and keep it there as long as
you need if you have to, to raise up your green bar. You can use this
steroid as LONG as you want, with no permanent consequences except for it
taking longer.
Blue Steroid- This is the dangerous steroid. All wild gamblers and risk
takers, give this a try! It is the same yet opposite of the green steroid.
Simply use Blue Power, Blue Chance, and Blue Trade during the tick. This
will BOOST the speed of your progress fairly well- but there is a risk that
the green bar, which goes down naturally anyway, will go down even more
dramatically. Use this steroid only if you feel you have the item down pat,
or want to take a risk. Just remember- it is only by risk taking you may
speed things up, but only by risk taking that makes this “pristine every
time” method 95 percent successful instead of 99.9 percent successful.
Green Balance- Press Green Power and Green Chance every tick, but do not
press Green Trade. This means you will NOT take away any blue bar but will
still be helping the green bar to stay up. This is great for two
circumstances. 1) You are doing a very hard item, and keeping the green bar
up is hard. So, after using the Green Steroid a while, you change to Green
Balance and that lets you keep green up while slowly raising Blue. 2) You
are doing a fairly easy item, but for the first quality level or two you use
Green Balance to make sure the green bar is up there before switching to
blue to finish the job off.
Blue Balance- This is THE best and most popular way to use the blue buttons.
After I learned more about them, I very rarely ever use Blue Steoid but I
often use Blue Balance to speed things up when I feel it is safe. Blue
Balance is Blue Power and Blue Chance, leaving out Blue Trade. (Note- for
those who want to spice things up a bit, you always could press Blue Power,
Blue Chance, and Green Trade… but it may end up meaning you just gain and
give away the same amount. I don’t mix it up- but feel free to try)
Green Blackout- I call this blackout because it is a “power saver”. What do
you do when your item takes too long to make and your power is getting low,
or out? Well, you either stop pressing buttons except to fix a problem, you
take a potion to help raise power (oh, and you should ALWAYS make sure you
have the appropriate level of drink in you every time you craft!), or you do
Green Blackout! Green Blackout uses Green Chance, and Green Trade. It lets
you REGAIN MAGIC POWER, yet you loose MINIMAL green bar. (NOTE- If you want
to keep up some green bar without loosing blue bar with Green Trade, then
you could stick to just Green Chance alone. Same with Blue Blackout and
using Blue Chance alone)
Blue Blackout- A very risky blackout solution, but usable in combation with
other Green ticks, or if your item is easy enough. You use Blue Chance and
Blue Trade to bring your power up again- but be wary, because this can
REALLY put your green bar at risk if you aren’t careful.
Step 3- Boosting Experience with Pristine
This is less button related, now, and a little more connected to the items
you craft. One probably already knows that the first Pristine item you make
for a specific item type, you get special experience for. This is the same
for items made using alternate ways. For example, I can make pristine iron
gual ink using apothecary and get extra experience. Then, I can make
pristine iron gual ink using alchemy, and get extra experience as well!
The trick, then, for gaining levels quickly now that you know the basis for
making pristine is to make one pristine of every item you can make for your
current level. As an alchemist, for my early teens that meant I made one of
every potion. Once I reached the point where potions weren’t available, and
skills were instead, I made one of every skill. With my scribe Iaria, it is
even easier since she has so very many spells she can craft! She has been
able to make it to the next level by just making one Pristine of every
individual spell. And since I can make pristine every time I try, at this
point- even though it can take a while at times- it means a very quick boost
up to the next level.
Making a pristine with something like scribing is VERY important, because
the ingredients take a LOT of time to get and the profit is much lower if
you do not make pristine. This way you can gain levels AND get a decent
profit. Of course, I realise that once more people make pristine the economy
will go down- but everything works together, and just as the selling price
goes down so will the costs of what you buy go down too.
Conclusion
This is the end at this point, for version 1.0 of my guide. I am sure that
there may come a point where there are things to add or I find things I
forgot. Please feel free to in-game mail Iaria on Antonia Bayle if you have
polite suggestions or advice for additions. I have a feeling that, after
this guide goes out, other guides will follow- because the main reason other
guides have not come out is that people feel it safer to keep the knowledge
in their own circles. I hope my sharing of knowledge has allowed you, dear
reader, to understand the game better. Do not be daunted by crafting-
rather, be encouraged to know that it is possible to understand it and grow.
The techniques I have given you alone are enough to let you craft well and
simply and find success- but through practice, learn and alter it to find
what works for you.
Thank you all. Feel free to roleplay with Lady Templar Iaria at any time on
Antonia Bayle.
This Guide is designed for the game Everquest 2, copyright Sony. I have
given this guide to specific sites to host it- please mail me in-game if you
wish to request permission to post elsewhere. This guide is written by ME,
Iaria, and it is my property- do not alter or change it OR remove my name
from it without my written permission.
