Noob Crafting Help NeededFollow

Hey all. I've currently got a level 23 ranger, and a level 14 warrior (who I play with my friend), a lot of stuff I want to buy, and hours of free time at work. I've spent quite a while reading all the forums started by other people with money problems. It seemed obvious to me, that I should start a tradeskill. I do have some money that I can invest at the beginning, though not much. And, I certainly have the time at work. (I'm a network administrator...I work 30mins a day and get paid for 6 hours) However, I have been very reluctant to do anything that may lead to killing my character if I have to minimize the window for a while (i.e. farming drops and harvesting). So, again, crafting seemed like the best solution.

Here's where I stand in terms of help needed: I've gotten to (level 3?) craftsman by doing that quest for Dreak on IoR, but nothing more. I don't know how to start, and was unable to find any tradeskill guides online. Do I need to get some of those books to get recepies, or do I just need to try things? Also, how do I get to a place to craft? I haven't been able to find one like the cellar on IoR. And, of course, I'd appreciate any suggestions for what class/subclass have been profitable in your opinion. If any of this is on another thread or website, you could just direct me there, and sorry for the unnecessary post.

Thanks for your help.

You will be able to buy recipie books at the merchant in the Wholesaler Instance - that's the "starter" area to craft.

But they only sell up to level 9 books. To get level 10 books and beyond, you must go join an Artisan Society, typically also in your home town. Keep in mind that once you join a particular society, you cannot join another. And once you lick an artisan subclass, you cannot go back, just like your adventure class.

This new society will sell the next round of books for you to scribe.

Remember that when crafting, you get a exp bonus for crafting something to Pristine for the first time. So a fast way to gain levels is to craft each new recipe in your book once to Pristine. Only down side is you'll have a lot of leftovers you may not need or have room for.

More advanced books can be bought from the broker or found as loot.

Good luck.

Here are a few points that occured to me...

Once you're a member of the wholesaler, don't buy all the books at once, buy them as you level since you can't scribe a book above your current level.

Try and focus on the "one" thing you want to keep doing as early as you can. building skill as a blacksmith, for example, doesn't help you if you are ultimately going to be a tailor or a jeweler. Early on, you'll get T/S experience no matter what you craft, but you're going to want to max out your skill in your chosen area of expertise and skill in other areas doesn't help you.

Remember that you get your first decent set of buffs at lvl 10. Up until that point, crafting is a crap-shoot and you have no way of controlling the process untill you get those lvl 10 durability buffs. So, try to just tuff it out and not get burned out by the quality level. (or the lack of quality level!)

Crafting is a long term goal... you won't make much money early on because anyone can make whatever it is you're making. After lvl 20 is when you can start to really earn from your craft.

When you first get rolling, you will need raw materials from tier 1 and your characters are tier 2. You might want to do a few "harvesting sessions" where you go someplace like Peat Bog or Oakmyst Forest with empty bags and just harvest everything in sight! Another option would be to go to those zones and /ooc that you will buy raw materials at reasonable prices.

When you actually get down to crafting, try to stay organized. You'll get more done if, for example, you take a crafting session and make all of the WORTs, (Washes, Oils, Resins & Tempers), you will need for the week. During the next session you can make all your sub-combines and then in the third session, you make all your final combines. This will save you the time of running from machine to machine - from room to room because you need one more wash or one more leather stretch!

Craft in bulk. You may think you only need a couple of items right now but you will always need the basic building blocks of your craft. And EVERYONE needs WORTs, so craft them in advance and craft them by the stack!

That's all I can think of at the moment. Good luck and happy crafting!

Thanks for all the help, everyone. I am now almost a level 12 craftsman. The only question I have now, is what should I level on? The problem I'm facing is that anything level 4 and below costs me almost nothing to xp on (no harvesting time required, and merchant buys products for slightly less than reactants)but gives me only about 1%xp per combine. Anything higher level requires what seems to me to be a disproportionate amount of time (either to harvest or make money and buy the raws), compared to how much they sell for. So, I was wondering if anyone knew of any higher level combines(5-12) which I may be able to sell to players, to absorb some of the costs, or any combines that require harvested items which are fairly available.

Thanks for the advice, but could anyone explain to me what WORTS really are, and how they're used later on? Someone said before that they include everything starting with "chloro-" in my recepie book. So, should I just make lots of those to level? For how long? And, I think I remember they almost all need roots...any good ideas of where i could harvest tons of roots?