Crafter noob type question

[oldmess]

(disclaimer - I haven't done any crafting yet; just used what others have made; basically, because you crafters are so rich, it's skewed the economy so that hunter-only types have a hard time keeping up. So, I want to supply quartered mats for basic items to reduce my costs.)

The basic question is this: If I want to bring the mats to a crafter so they can craft something for me, is there anything special I should be aware of?

Let me be more specific: For a set of light armor, it appears that a high quality set requires 19 bits of Clothes, 19 bits of Lining, 10 bits of Armor Clip and 10 bits of Stuffing. I've heard reference to failures; should I bring along more materials than needed in case this happens? How much?

What is QL based on? The lowest QL of the mats I bring?

I know that a lot of equipment varies in important characteristics based on the mats themselves and I'm not looking for details on recipes here. But, do the type of mats affect whether sap or hp bonuses can be added to the final items?

[morgan73]

A lot of the factors on how much you should bring depends on the crafters ability, and what each individual needs/wants. A rough rule of thumb is to up the base quantity of needed mats by at least half again.

As far as ending Q level, yes, it is dependant upon the lowest q ingredient. So if you bring a bunch of q169 items, but then have only q145 of some other part thats needed, your ending product will be q145.

Hope that helps some.

And bonuses are only dependant on the ending Q, half of it, to be precise. So q160 armor can have only the max of an 80 point bonus for whatever you need (focus, sap, stamina, or HP).

[iphdrunk]

The basic question is this: If I want to bring the mats to a crafter so they can craft something for me, is there anything special I should be aware of?

For some items like weapons, amplifiers, shields, etc. some crafters whose skill allows them to craft the item without overcrafting (common term used to craft items using a skill that they got leveling another 'related' tree) may ask just the mats, 1.5 or twice the number of mats required for the item (or dappers, or an insane amount of mats, etc. your mileage may vary, that depends only on how the crafter sets the prices), and there is no other big thing to take into account.

Nevertheless, one of the important things to consider is that crafting trees branch at some point e.g; armor crafting branches at 50 then at 100; jewelry branches at 50. These items are almost always sold as 'sets'. Depending on how the crafter has been levelling his trees, it may take several mats to complete the set: failure rates can be 5% for the lowest branches and the required number of mats is random. So when you say 'a heavy armor takes X mats' that is assuming no degrades.

As an example a Light Armor (LA) crafter that has all his LA parts e.g. lvl 208 will craft a q210 set prolly using only the exact number of mats required, maybe a degrade or a couple. Another one, who is 208 in pants and the other parts are 101 will fail more and it may take 5 or 6 times the number of required mats assuming no degrades (just guessing, no formal numbers).

This rule also applies to 'related' trees: a crafter that got e.g. matis weapon crafting by raising it's pike crafting can try to craft a dagger using that skill, but the number of required mats may be completely random, sometimes a few stacks.

My point is that if you ask a crafter what can he craft, don't be surprised if the number of mats required/used is important.

[oldmess]

...

My point is that if you ask a crafter what can he craft, don't be surprised if the number of mats required/used is important.

Wow, that is a lot more complex than just figuring out which mob gives 3k xp this week.

I think the main 2 types of items I'm talking about are light armor and jewelry. In both cases, I really only care about the bonuses added into them. If they aren't as durable, that's OK, because it was still better than asking the jeweler to do all mat gathering. If light armor provides a lower level of protection, it's not that big a deal to me because it doesn't provide that much protection to begin with.

So, I'd rather spend my hard-earned dappers (or whatever the crafter wants) on those items where the recipe matters and ask the crafter to simply let me know what I can do to earn a decent weapon or amp from them. And then bow in respect to their ability to keep all this information straight.

[roninpvp]

Anissa makes very valid points and I just want to add that its very important to get to know your crafter. Personally I'd rather stick with a crafter thats 200 LA/jewlry in all branches than try to get one thats 250 in in one pc but 100ish in all else. The number of mats required will consistantly be predictable for the 200ish crafter while the 250 crafter in only one branch may continue to burn through your mats with not a decent set.

[iphdrunk]

I think the main 2 types of items I'm talking about are light armor and jewelry. In both cases, I really only care about the bonuses added into them. If they aren't as durable, that's OK, because it was still better than asking the jeweler to do all mat gathering. If light armor provides a lower level of protection, it's not that big a deal to me because it doesn't provide that much protection to begin with.

true, in general terms any digger/crafter can get as many choice mats as needed to finish the set, since those items are basically "bonusholders" (even with 5% success rate it takes, at most, a few stacks, several minutes, and sitting down from time to time to regen focus....) except when you start thinking about getting a 10-resist jewel set or a +2 dodge/piece Light armor. Then things get more complicated (hint hint madness resist )