most enjoyable crafting - advice needed

[angus858]

I haven't started crafting yet because I wanted to develop my harvesting skills first. But now the time has come and I need to decide what to craft. I'm not really interested in making money with crafting. I'll probably just make stuff for myself and my friends. I think I'd enjoy playing around with different recipes to see what the different types of materials do. What I'd like is some advice on which line of crafting is most enjoyable to you. Is it all the same or did one type seem like less of a "grind" than some other? Tell me your opinions please.

[bodywand]

The only crafting I don't enjoy is Jewelry. It is a major grind for me.. the rest is hot stuff.

[euwest]

i think weapons are the most fun.

armor is a royal pain when you get to 100+. jewls are the same but even earlier(50+). weapons split up into 1h, 2h, and cc at 51, and then again into the different kinds at 100. but you don't have to go to 150 with each weapon to see the benefits of your labor. with armor you've gotta grind up at least 4 of the trees to look decent. with jewls, you've gotta do them ALL and it starts at 50... = lame.

not to mention living weapons have actual fx instead of a few more squigglies(armor), or no change at all(jewls).

and ranged weapons... yeah... if you're into pain and suffering, go ahead.

[kisedd]

i think weapons are the most fun.

armor is a royal pain when you get to 100+. jewls are the same but even earlier(50+). weapons split up into 1h, 2h, and cc at 51, and then again into the different kinds at 100. but you don't have to go to 150 with each weapon to see the benefits of your labor. with armor you've gotta grind up at least 4 of the trees to look decent. with jewls, you've gotta do them ALL and it starts at 50... = lame.

not to mention living weapons have actual fx instead of a few more squigglies(armor), or no change at all(jewls).

and ranged weapons... yeah... if you're into pain and suffering, go ahead.

I agree about the weapons. It's just easy to focus in on one or two weapons. Ranged weapons can be fun too.

[tinpony]

I haven't started crafting yet because I wanted to develop my harvesting skills first. But now the time has come and I need to decide what to craft. I'm not really interested in making money with crafting. I'll probably just make stuff for myself and my friends. I think I'd enjoy playing around with different recipes to see what the different types of materials do. What I'd like is some advice on which line of crafting is most enjoyable to you. Is it all the same or did one type seem like less of a "grind" than some other? Tell me your opinions please.

While my light armour, heavy armour, 2-handed weapons and amp-craft branches are all +100, light armour remains my favourite to make. The armourcraft branches are truly the more thankless branches (after jewelry), but I enjoy them. I have patterns for matis, tryker and zorai light armour and like making different colours and mixes for friends. It's the line that most closely resembles 'clothing' and with the big reduction on the dodge bonuses, it seems to be more for show and the HP/sap/focus add ons you can put into it.

Weapons are cool to manufacture but almost every weapon of the type is desireable for pretty much the exact same build. Big shell, oath bark, dzao and whatever your counterweight of choice. There's not a lot of room to play for useable weapons. While the end results look cool, it's much more of a manufacturing process to me.

I tend to make runs of colours for armour. One week I put red, green, turquoise, blue, purple, white and black armour up for sale in the various markets. I enjoy the playing with recipes on that. When I have new sources, I'll give a call. Black armour coming up, who wants some?

Anyway, that's my prespective. Armourcraft is a very long process requiring buckets of mats and patience, but it's also a fun one to follow.

Tin.

[vinnyq]

wat's the best mats to use for making light armor with dodge mod? Anybody know?

[tinpony]

wat's the best mats to use for making light armor with dodge mod? Anybody know?

I use Shu fiber, moon resin, gulatch oil and visc sap. I know others have different recipes though.

Tin.

[lyrah68]

I think this is a type of crafter/player thing. But...I enjoy SEEING my efforts...so...I tend to go for crafting things that show when equipped.

At the moment, jewelery does NOT show, and I agree fully that the grind on it is MIND numbing. And before patch one, Jewel crafting was PAINFULLY expensive SP wise (why would ANYONE make jewelery WITHOUT the bonuses to HP etc? and EACH form used to cost 100sp, and the bonuses were 50sp PER level!)

I am a fashon hound, if I were wealthy in real life...I would need three houses to hold all the clothing and shoes. SO...armor crafting is HUGELY rewarding to me. It is not the cheepest, not the easiest, but it is rewarding to me.

Weapon crafting is INSTANT gratification, insert materials hit craft button, pull out sword that is better than the NPC ones. PLUS, some of the weapons LOOK killer (each races has at least ONE weapon that is amazing looking, so far they seem to be a different weapon for each race).

Being a forager/harvester...you can map your nodes, find the BEST mats for each project, and make the BEST gear possible.

Honestly I do suggest that you find ONE or two weapons that YOU enjoy using (buy one store bought of each and try it out, sell the ones you don't like back, I did this and found two of the three I didn't like were not even damaged in the SHORT time I used them). And find one or two weights of armor you like using.

My method WILL slow you down, but will also make you self suffient for the most part. You can sell your extra crafted stuff or the mixed bag materials for your jewelery needs and anything else you can't make.

I wish you the best.

[aylwyne]

The material database on our guild's website will help with finding mats with the desired stats (dodge, parry, damage, etc.).

http://www.ballisticmystix.com

We're also working on figuring out the formulas behind crafting so you'll be able to combine mats on the site and see the stats on the final item. No promises on how soon this will be as the formulas seem rather complex.