The Truth about Arts and Crafts

disastro · Post by **disastro** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 1:20 pm

Some aspects of crafting requirements are poorly understood. I have conducted an experiment over the past month at the cost of much xp, time and gold and here is what I have found:

upgrading depends on CHARACTER level, not crafting CLASS level. that is, as long as you are master artisan you can upgrade your items provided your overall level is high enough, even if you multiclass (but probably not if you multiclass into a craft limiting class, that was not part of this experiment).

the experiment:

level 32 character: bard 19 ftr 6 wm 7

started tailor crafting at level 31 (with 18 bard levels). this is AFTER i had taken all my WM and fighter levels.

hit Artisan at level character level 31 (18 bard) and could not continue due to not enough bard levels (the message states "you find it increasingly difficult to improve your craft" or some such)

I got one more bard level and was able to grind up to Master Artisan.

I created the MA gloves and was able to upgrade them twice (+8 str, +5 deflect ac).

Interesting facts to point out:
-Weapon Master is not listed in the wiki as a craft-limiting class and this experiment bears this out. WM doesn't hurt or help your crafting.
-upgrading only needs Master Artisan and enough *character* levels to use the item. (the post describing upgrading was a little vague on this point)
-i still have no idea how to make level 40 items, because the big craft post says you can only upgrade twice and it takes 2 upgrades to get to level 30 eq. nobody i know has any information on how this works, i get the feeling nobody has ever created a level 40 item, possibly because there are no crafters high enough to do it.
-the way this build worked out was the worst way to go about crafting because my bard levels came late in life. XP is much much harder to get at level 32 than it is earlier making these items much more expensive in terms of player time, so make sure you craft-as-you-level up.
-with so many bard levels i really need all the items i can make so this flexibility in crafting worked out pretty well.

MLoki · Post by **MLoki** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 10:35 pm

I believe the Devs decided to max out craftable items to level 30. Even with a 40th level Druid crafter which I have crafted with I may only upgrade an item twice which is the 30th level item you described being able to craft. There is no way to craft 40th level items or +10 stat bonus items at this time. The maximum value of craftable items is 30th level and the 40th level items that were posted are not obtainable.

MLoki

Celorn · Post by **Celorn** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 11:58 pm

wow..thanks for the work! but now I'm stuck with 3 level25 pure crafters and don't know if i want to multiclass now that I've hit that.

I wish a DEV/DM would step in and let us know if:

1. lvl30 will be it for good
2. it will always be based on being (a) MA arcane and (b) base upgrades on overall level, no matter what other classes came in after 19/20.

disastro · Post by **disastro** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 3:57 pm

Celorn wrote:(b) base upgrades on overall level, no matter what other classes came in after 19/20.

while i have not tried this the way i read the upgrade post, if you have classes in a craft limiting prestige class you can not upgrade at all. i'm guessing the script checks this restriction when you actually go to upgrade, so stepping into the wrong multiclass could remove your ability to upgrade.

now THAT one i'm not willing to test.

i imagine there's a good chance you will remain hosed even if you delevel out of it, depending on how complete the level-down script triggers are.

as far as i can tell you should be clear to multi into other base classes or weapon master.

Celorn · Post by **Celorn** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 8:39 pm

well.. i'm not gonna take the risk... It's not like any of my crafters would be uber-pvp anyhow, and hopefully they will one day inherit pure class bonuses.

(Ranger, Bard and Wizard)

Post by **Binkyuk** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 6:32 am

Certainly good news for the fletchers, as the way we understood it before the *only* way to make the ultimate fletcher was a 100% pure ranger.

Incidentally, you made a level 30 pure ranger? Kudos.

Post by **cely** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 10:29 am

Technically, you only need to make level 29 characters to craft level 30 items. You can even equip the items you craft even though you don't meet the minimum level requirement. That being said, I take them to level 30 anyway so I can use level 30 equipment that I cannot craft. Makes it a bit easier to collect that precious XP used in crafting