General Discussion

MMORPG.com EverQuest II Correspondent Daniel Stull has written this introductory article to a continuing series on the tradeskills system in Sony Online Entertainment's EverQuest II.

Tradeskills, in most MMOs, are the backbone for generating money in the game. Players who are successful at creating in-demand items are usually the richest, that is, until there are enough crafters to satisfy demand. But that's Economics 101, or another article. You're reading this for some insight into crafting in Everquest 2.

The tradeskills in Everquest 2 consist of three classes – craftsman, outfitter, and scholar. But first, you must reach tradeskill level 10 to make your choice of class. How does one increase tradeskill level? Pretty simple; according to a guide over at EQ2traders, you must go to a starting trainer to increase your tradeskill level to 2, thus making your character an artisan, and from there you start increasing tradeskill experience points by simply making items. You make items via recipes found in your Book of Knowledge (accessed by pressing the “K” key). Recipes can also be found in the world, can be granted as quest rewards, and even sold on the broker. This sets the ground for your choice of class, as experimentation with what you create will usually set you on your track. I'll break down the classes for you so you'll see that what you make usually makes you:

Read the article here.

I suggest you either start crafting yourself, or leave writing about tradeskills/crafting to someone who knows what they're talking about.

You don't specialize at lvl 10 and 20, you do it at 9 and 19. You CAN'T reach 10 and 20 without specializing, but will gain that lvl when you make your choice.

Pressing K to find recipes in the Book of Knowledge? No, that's wrong. You'll  find spells and abilities there, not recipes. For recipes, most players needs to press N, while for reasons unknown to me, others have to press B. Or simply press on the crafting station. Either will open your recipe book.

Sorry, but when you start an article with wrong info, it's not tempting to read further.

He also did not mention how the tradeskills have been significantly dumbed down.  It used to be far more complex.  Guess they had to compete with Wow.  I don't find either EQ II or Wow's tradeskills that useful in game.  Unless you have significant replentishment in a tradeskill system, like item decay or item loss, tradeskills in the game suffer from lack of need.

Originally posted by Netspook

I suggest you either start crafting yourself, or leave writing about tradeskills/crafting to someone who knows what they're talking about.

You don't specialize at lvl 10 and 20, you do it at 9 and 19. You CAN'T reach 10 and 20 without specializing, but will gain that lvl when you make your choice.

Pressing K to find recipes in the Book of Knowledge? No, that's wrong. You'll  find spells and abilities there, not recipes. For recipes, most players needs to press N, while for reasons unknown to me, others have to press B. Or simply press on the crafting station. Either will open your recipe book.

Sorry, but when you start an article with wrong info, it's not tempting to read further.

I reached level 10, and could not go further until I chose a specialization.

The recipe hotkey may have been a typo on my part. I can't remember, to be honest.

As for the whole "dumbed down" aspect, I started this game rather recently, so I have no opinion nor experience in anything before August. Sorry.

Thanks for the input though.

Originally posted by Miustus

The recipe hotkey may have been a typo on my part. I can't remember, to be honest. 

My point should have been a bit clearer on that one. Which hotkey you said to press, isn't the most important error, But saying that recipes are in the BoK, that's a major one.

Can the Forge still kill you if you fail?

I have not run into that instance, and I've failed plenty of times at forging.

I remember on my first toon back in 04.. missed up and i was dead on the floor next to the forge.

Originally posted by Nocuma

Can the Forge still kill you if you fail?

Sadly, no.  If you fail to counter one of the events you still have a chance of being hurt or having power drained, but not to the level that it could kill you.  There are those of us who still request death-by-forge to be re-instated.

As far as the article is concerned, it's rubbish as usual.  Sorry, but the author just doesn't seem to be able to grasp the simple fact that repeating things other people have said doesn't work if what they said is incorrect.

For example:

Book of Knowledge instead of Recipe Book

Mentions imbuing but doesn't mention blessing (which suggests the details were cut and pasted from an older article!)

Bucklers do not, in my experience, "proc to increase blocking when struck".  What they have is a chance to proc heat damage.

"in the case of the Outfitter, you may not be able to pump out an entire set of armor at one tier. Parts of it may be stretched throughout multiple tiers" = wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong!

"The Scholar usually sits at a scribing desk to make their spell scrolls, a chemistry table for potions and poisons, and a work bench for jewelry. Scholars also create essences for tank characters, and runes for scout characters.".  Well, this is sort of nearly right but surely it should be mentioned that spell scrolls, essences and runes are upgrades to mage spells, fighter and scout combat arts. 

And then there's the omissions, for example where are the boxes and sales crates?  Sure, these are not really for levels 1-20 but then again neither are altars and they got a big mention.  Any mention of the materials required for crafting?  No, of course not.  Which means that for a beginner it doesn't even provide the basic information required to get past level 2.  Also, for a beginner, it would be beneficial to have the tiers explained in more detail.  Another also, why not mention that the reaction arts are not only in the knowledge book but also appear at the bottom of the crafting window?  Why not mention that there are two types of reaction arts (one for duration and one for progress)?  Why not mention that you really need to be pressing these buttons every craft cycle and not just as reactions?  And why oh why doesn't this article mention that there is a set of crafting quests that teach you the basics?

The article isn't even structured that well, for example it tells you things about scholars and outfitters in the craftmen section (I think it is just a simple case of the craftmen heading being placed incorrectly, but still if simple details like that are messed up then how much trust can you have in what is written?).  Also, the bit at the bottom about reaction arts would have benefited by having a heading to make it clear it was not part of the scholars section (sorry, am I being too picky?).

0/10 is my score for this article.  It would have been 100% better if it just directed folks to places where this is explained properly ...

http://www.eq2.eqtraders.com/

http://eq2.allakhazam.com/