Look What I Made Mommy: a crafting symposium

[Ikarisan]

Here is a link with a pretty good general discription of the crafting system in Aion.
http://www.aionfly.com/2009/06/aion-crafting-guide/

Crafting in Aion not only serves to help the legion as a whole by providing top of the line equipment and items to our members, but it is also a good source of revenue. If anyone was looking over the auction house during the betas they might have noticed that people were making a killing by crafting highly sought after weapons, armor, potions, scrolls, accessories, etc.

Leveling crafting can be time consuming and expensive though. Crafting items requires various recipes that utilize the hundreds of different materials in Aion in thousands of ways. My hopes are that we can have "legion crafters" that are interested in specializing in each one of the crafts. Obviously anyone is welcome to craft, but since a character is only able to master one craft, it would be beneficial to have at least one master for each craft available. And as a whole we can help our master crafters to improve their skills.

I have also been looking for a current crafting recipe list to post so we can know exactly what will need to be gathered for each item. Having mastered a craft doesn't do any good if we don't have the materials to make the items! Gathering will definitely have to be a legion wide effort. Refining stones, aether, and raw mats all cost a fortune to buy from other players so if we can pool these together in our legion warehouses (asmodian and elyos) it will be for the benefit of everyone.

If anyone has already decided a craft that they would like to master please list it here. Having more than one specialist for each craft is certainly welcome as long as we can cover all of the crafts .

[rikbar]

I was thinking maybe Armor or Alchemy for my priest, but I don't really have a idea how crafting works yet.

[Zora]

I'm up for weaponsmithing or handicarfting I guess.

[SassySusan86]

Hmm...most likely Alchemy or Crafter but I'm not sure. I didn't really get into learning about any of that during the Beta.

[Sable Wood]

I'm going to try Sewing, might as well, since in real life I'm pretty good at it. Besides, your site says it's good for a priest, scout and mage, and those are the 3 I'm most interested in.

[Sionell]

I'll probably work on handicrafting the most and i'm not sure about the armor one yet. Could go sewing or armorsmithing but it depends on which kind of armor I want for my chanter.

[Ikarisan]

Still not much point in investing too much into crafting since it's beta. I would recommend everyone investing a little time into alchemy though. After 20 or so levels you can make basic regen over time mp and hp potions using lesser elemental stones and angelica or alza or alfalfa or whatever it's called now. 20 levels of crafting takes about an hour tops. You can make a ton of the first level potions for next to nothing and they save you quite a bit of time in the long run.

[Zora]

I will try to focus on Weaponsmithing in release. I think it will help the guild to have some nice weapons for when we all ascend.. then again, Ikari and I made a killing in the hard zones on Sunday... slaving over an anvil or killing baddies with Ikari??? Hhhmmmm... wait I got to have something to do when Ikari isn't on.. now when is that?

[Sable Wood]

Ikari is omni-present.

After reading the information about crafting I have come across, I need to rethink what I want to craft. Some things, apparently, aren't worth the time. And time is my most precious commodity.

[Ikarisan]

I will be logged in to all servers on all of my characters at all times. Even the GM's will learn to fear, respect, and eventually love my presence.

Crafting does come with it's advantages. Obviously you want to do something that's going to be a direct benefit to your character which is why I say even doing low lvl alchemy is advantageous to everyone. The basic premise of crafting is that the highest grade critical crafted item you can make per level will be slightly better than the equivalent level drop you can get from farming mobs. Critical craft is when you start making something and it comes out better than the original design you started making.

For example, if you are making a regular steel plate breastplate (for a lvl 15 char I think) it will normally come out as the item with the stats of what you set out to make. There is a chance that the item will critical however while you are crafting it. When this happens, you will see the status change from a white steel breastplate to a green noble steel breastplate which will have higher stats and more manastone slots. The noble breastplate will have higher stats than the best green breastplate you can get from drops for a lvl 15 character.

This holds true for all things made by crafting. Eventually you will get designs to make green gear which can critical into blue gear, and designs for blue gear which can crit into gold gear. Critical crafts sell for tons of money to other players and make a nice source of income. You can level all of the crafts to a certain point but you can only master one and a master of a craft can make the strongest items in the game.

[rikbar]

the little I did this beta was pretty fun, I did some alchemy and didn't mind it.
still haven't decided on a main, sorc was fun and still like cleric alot. will have to see I guess.

[Ikarisan]

Decided to mess around with handicrafting for my asmodian chanter. Last night I made a pretty sweet bow that turned out to be my first critical craft! Our asmodian legion leader now has a sweet Noble Zephyr bow with in which to pwn many a creature with

[Zora]

Tyvm the new bow helps a lot! I have also crafted myself a noble steel sword and a steel dagger. I am having a hard time getting good leather drops. I am putting time into sewing just because all my good drops have been Plate or Chain. I think my ranger will be more durable as soon as I can get out of my lvl 8 armor and into some lvl 18 armor.

[Ikarisan]

I am having a hard time getting good leather drops. I am putting time into sewing just because all my good drops have been Plate or Chain. I think my ranger will be more durable as soon as I can get out of my lvl 8 armor and into some lvl 18 armor.

I've noticed the same thing. Playing as a chanter I rarely get any chain armor or staves to drop. I get a ton of plate, cloth, leather, greatswords, polearms, daggers, spellbooks, etc. :/. I wonder if that's an intentional thing to encourage teamwork?

If I get something that's in the same lvl range as someone in the guild I will save it, if not I put it in the auction house to make some cash so I can afford the chanter items I need.

[Ikarisan]

I just put some Flux's in the warehouse, and took a pair of Deadra gloves I'm heading off to do the armor crafting quest, so hopefully I can supply us with that type of armor eventually. I managed to get my Extract up to 45. I guess that's what I'm supposed to be doing in order to craft. Hopefully I'll be able to tear myself away from the game long enough to read up on how to do this over the weekend.

I'm going to put this here because it's more related to all crafts

You can actually lvl crafting to a pretty high lvl without spending a single minute on gathering. You will obviously need the mats in order to make something though. Your basic mats can be bought from other players for relatively cheap but as the lvl of the mats increases so does the price and of course, the more you have to spend on mats, the less profit you stand to make by selling your items.

Flux is the single most expensive thing needed to craft, followed by aether because of it's difficulty to gather (not as easily found and you need to fly in order to get it). Even minor flux stones cost around 1.2k ea from players and the most basic item is going to take about 6 of them to craft. When you get into needing greater and major flux stones, they can run you in upwards of 50-100k ea to buy

There are higher lvl items that involve special types of flux like the Worthy Titanium shield. Unlike standard items it involves worthy flux which is a green drop and harder to obtain thus more expensive to buy. Also unlike standard white items this shield starts out as a green item when you make it. Just like the standard item will start white and have a chance to crit as a green item, this will start out green and have the chance to crit into a blue item.

And there are higher items yet that get even more involved like for example an Expert Ulmus staff. In order to make this item you need not only the mats, the aether, the worthy flux stones, but you will also need the lesser version of the item which is the Worthy Ulmus staff (also needing flux, mats, etc. to make). In making expert versions of items, the worthy version is destroyed to make a higher lvl version of itself.

So in short, gathering and farming flux stones plays a major part in all crafts. But for the sake of efficiency, have one person concentrating on gathering mats and one person working on lvling a craft is quicker. Just like having each person dedicated to mastering a specific craft will be more efficient than everyone trying to work on all the crafts and gathering at the same time.