Crafting or Harvesting for a newly created character?

[aldrikoy]

For my 1st character I plan to get 2 Kits in magic but i'm still trying to decide what other skill I want, crafting or harvesting? If you all have any advice to give, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[eegreen]

I'd go with harvesting. Crafting is very difficult if you aren't a harvester because you'll have to buy all the materials. Harvesting alone works because you can sell or trade the materials for money or things you need.

[mikwana]

For my 1st character I plan to get 2 Kits in magic but i'm still trying to decide what other skill I want, crafting or harvesting? If you all have any advice to give, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Well, if you are going to want to do all three, I suggest getting one of each. With the heal spell, if you ask someone nice, they will let you cast on them a few fights, and it shouldn't take too much more than that to get your first damage spell. Harvest and Craft will earn themselves fast enough.

[kovah]

I've been screwing around creating some new characters and playing around on the islands just to get a feel for things. I wanted to create a healer/fighter. I went with two magic packs(wanted that acid1 to make getting magic xp easier at the get go) and one craft. The only reason I got the craft pack was for hp/hp regen/hp self heal/hp aura. I found that grinding boots and buying mats/using quartered mats up to level 20 was easier than trying to forage up to 20. Unless you get two forage packs out the gate you have to buy at least one upgrade in forage which was a waste of sp that I wanted to use towards hp/etc... Don't know if that helps at all, and it is all my opinion, could very well be wrong....

[ctusk]

I recommend 1 kit in magic, 1 craft, 1 harvest .

Fight you can pick up without having to buy any kits.

[aldrikoy]

My thanks for the help, all. Although I thoroughly enjoy group activities, the idea of being dependent on grouping to begin advancing in magic bugs me, thus the 2 magic packs. Coming off a year of SWG (yeah, taking a break and looking for something different) I am quite familiar with the concept of the grind. I do intend to dabble in everything at some point, but so far, the posts and guides I have read have not clued me in on whether craft or harvest would be the harder grind to add on later. I am leaning towards 2 magic and 1 craft at this point. But it doesn't look like it would be all that awful to start over if I discover this doesn't work for me. See ya on Atys!

[zukor]

My thanks for the help, all. Although I thoroughly enjoy group activities, the idea of being dependent on grouping to begin advancing in magic bugs me, thus the 2 magic packs. Coming off a year of SWG (yeah, taking a break and looking for something different) I am quite familiar with the concept of the grind. I do intend to dabble in everything at some point, but so far, the posts and guides I have read have not clued me in on whether craft or harvest would be the harder grind to add on later. I am leaning towards 2 magic and 1 craft at this point. But it doesn't look like it would be all that awful to start over if I discover this doesn't work for me. See ya on Atys!

Don't forget, fight is free, and you can always spend the 50 points to pick up crafting later. I started as you did, with 2 magic and 1 craft, quickly leveled up in fighting, and at some point I paid the 50 to add crafting. It's not really an "either/or" proposition.

Doctor Z.

[josephm]

I'd ditch two magic packs for acid. Sure cold doesn't do as much to animals, but it affects both mammals and kipee so you can level at a good place and still have lots of extra SP for other things. So start with heal, and use your healing points to buy cold.

In the UK respec on ATS I read that they put acid in with pack 1. This is cool, but if I could buy heal for cheap in another branch I'd start without any pack in magic at all. It comes down to personal preference. Maybe I just don't like the high pitch keen of acid.

If you want to craft armor, I'd get the 1st pack. If not, invest all in harvesting. It'll let you get mats faster and you can use the extra starting sp to specify your next skill. Do the same with fight credits and you have all four skills, And the two that require the most specialization are fully in your control!

[aldrikoy]

Well, now that I have a whopping 14 hours or so of gameplay, here's my feedback for any other new player with the same question. I'm glad I started with 2 magic packs, because other players tend to be sparse and reluctant to team, at least where I am. (I guess the idea of sharing the experience is daunting to most new players, although I suspect we could actually level faster with some teamwork and have more fun doing so.) However, I read in the posts on Patch 1 that we will now get Acid 1 with one magic pack, so I think the conventional wisdom of 1 pack each of magic, craft, and harvest will indeed be the way to go afterwards. I think either the craft or the harvest pack would have worked fine; now that I bought harvest late last night I see I could have ground out the points either way without much hassle. And my experience (so far, such that it is) with crafting and materials has matched kovah's impressions on materials. It was not hard to buy or quarter materials sufficient for this level of crafting without harvest. But if I had started after Patch 1 knowing what (little) I have learned, I would start with 1 magic, 1 craft, and 1 harvest. My thanks for the advice given, it was most appreciated.

[zukor]

aldrikoy,

As a relatively new player myself I appreciate your thoughts. Your reasoning corresponds pretty well with what I thought, too, and reflects why I also chose to start with two magic packs. As you mention, though, patch 1 will change many things. I'm not sure how useful this thread will be to a prospective new player a few days from now.

Doctor Z.