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Crafting serves a number of purposes in href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro">the Lord
of the Rings Online.
Sometimes, it is a way for the player to hand-craft his own gear that
is often superior to items from quest rewards or loot dropped from
mobs. Other times, it is a fine way to make money, selling crafted
items and surplus raw materials on the auction house or in "private"
transactions through public channels. For some folks, it is something
to do between quests and adventures, a bit of quiet time in a busy
world. Whatever your reasons for it, crafting can be a little bit
confusing for new players: there are lots of weird ingredients, complex
recipes and various other elements that some people will find
themselves needing help with.



Never fear! That's what we do. Read on for your guided tour through the
Wild, Wonderful World of LotRO Crafting.

WHAT CRAFT SHOULD I PICK?

Ah,
that first agonizing decision. You find the crafting area, you talk to
the Master/Mistress of Apprentices, and he or she presents you with a
great long list of possible professions. Each profession consists of
three separate crafting skills, usually two production skills and one
resource-gathering skill. The profession you will pick will probably
depend on your class, though ultimately it just depends on the kind of
stuff you want to make. We'll look at this from two angles: one by href="#prof">profession, one by class.

By
Profession

cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
Profession Crafts Best
Classes Why Armourer Metalsmith, Tailor, Prospector Champion, Captain, Guardian The ability to forge heavy armor and shields. This
profession is good
for most classes, as Metalsmith provides the ability to make
high-quality crafting tools and Tailor can make clothing, medium armor
and cloaks. Will require the assistance of a Forester for Tailoring. Armsman Weaponsmith, Woodworker, Prospector Champion, Captain, Burglar Any melee-based class will benefit from the ability to
make their own
weapons. Captains can make their own halberds, which are unique to the
class. Burglars can craft their own Burglar Tricks. Will require the
assistance of a Forester for Woodworking. Explorer Prospector, Forester, Tailor Any The
ability to harvest any natural resource. This is a good profession for
those who do not want to spend a lot of time on crafting, or for those
who just want to use crafting to make money, or for an alt to supply
mats to a main. This profession requires no assistance from other
crafters. Tinker Jeweller, Prospector, Cook Runekeeper, Lore-master, Champion Any
class is good for Tinker, and it is one of the most popular
professions. Runekeepers can craft their own rune stones, Lore-masters
can craft their own talismans, Champions can craft their own runes.
Will require the services of a Farmer for Cooking. Yeoman Cook, Farmer, Tailor Any A
largely-overlookd profession because it lacks the glamour of
weaponsmithing or metalsmithing. The ability to make crafted food
without relying on others for materials is pretty handy. Will require
the assistance of a Forester for Tailoring. Woodsman Woodworker, Forester, Farmer Hunter, Warden, Lore-master Hunters
can craft bows and crossbows, Wardens can craft spears and javelins and
carvings, Lore-masters can craft staves and grow pipeweed. This
profession requires no assistance from other crafters, though some
Woodworker recipes require metal pieces from Weaponsmiths or
Metalsmiths. Historian Scholar, Weaponsmith, Farmer Minstrel, Lore-master, Hunter Can make legendary items for Lore-masters and
Minstrels. Many Hunter class items
are Scholar recipes. This is a good choice for any class, as it
provides the ability to make all manner of potions and cosmetic dyes,
as well as weapons, plus a large number of the new class-specific
consumables. Weaponsmithing requires the assistance of a
Prospector. Scholar and Farmer are both resource-gathering and
production crafts and have no dependencies.

By
Class

cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
Class Recommended
Professions Why Burglar Armsman, Scholar, Yeoman, Explorer Class items and legendary items come from Tailor
(Burglar tools, signals) and Weaponsmith (Burglar tricks, legendary
weapons). Captain Armourer, Armsman, Explorer, Yeoman Class
items come from Tailor (armaments, standards) and weaponsmiths
(halberds, usable only by Captains). Legendary emblems are made by
Metalsmiths. Champion Armourer, Armsman, Tinker, Historian Heavy armor and shields from Armourer, class items from
Tinker, weapons galore from Armsman, battle scrolls from Historian. Guardian Armourer, Tinker, Yeoman, Historian Heavy
armor and shields firom Armorer, buffing food from Tinker and Yeoman,
Edhelharn tokens from Tinker, battle scrolls from Historian Hunter Woodsman, Armsman, Explorer, Historian Bows and crossbows from Woodsman/Armsman, medium armor
from Explorer, most class items from Historian Lore-master Tinker, Historian, Yeoman, Woodsman Class
items from Jeweller/Scholar, buffing food and pet food from Cook, light
armor from Tailor, staves from Woodworker, pipeweed from Farmer Minstrel Historian, Explorer, Woodsman, Yeoman Light
and medium armor from Tailor, potions, salves and battle scrolls from
Scholar, instruments from Woodworker, buffing food and lute strings
from Cook Rune-keeper Tinker, Historian, Explorer, Yeoman Rune stones from Jeweller, enamels from Scholar, light
armor from Tailor, buffing food from Cook; Metalsmith makes chisels and
rifflers and Woodworker makes parchments, neither of which is enough to
merit picking these over other professions. Warden Woodsman, Armsman, Armourer, Explorer Spears, javelins and carvings from Woodworker, Warden
shields from Metalsmith, medium armor from Tailor

As
you can see, there are a number of viable options for every class.
Ultimately, it's up to you, the player, to decide on what you want, and
there are very few really bad class/profession combos.

A
common strategy is to pick a specific production class on the main
character and then roll an alt to meet the dependency requirements.
Typically, the dependency is some kind of resource-gathering
(Prospector or Forester), and this can usually be accomplished by an
Explorer. As an example, your main is a Guardian with the Armourer
profession. In order to make light or medium armor or cloaks, the
Tailor needs leather, which is made by a Forester. You roll up a Hunter
Explorer, run around killing wolves and bears for a while, and your
Tailor is good to go without having to spend a fortune on materials at
the auction house.

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NUTS & BOLTS

Different
crafts rely on different resources. Hides can be looted off the bodies
of slain creatures of nature, food and dye ingredients can occasionally
be found growing in the wild or produced on a farm, but scholar items,
wood and metal
ores are found in nodes. Ore nodes (and other resource nodes) pop up
everywhere, and they respawn
after a little while. For ore nodes, there are usually 2 types in a
given area: one "precious" ore and one "common" ore. Precious ores are
the ones used for crafting jewelry and common ores are for
metalsmithing and weaponsmithing. When a node respawns, it has a
percent chance to respawn as one type or the other, which introduces a
level of sustainable resource management to the game. 

Consider:
if you run through an area and only mine tin and not copper, there is a
chance that the nodes will respawn as copper. If you continue to mine
ore in that area, and continue to only collect tin, after a while there
will be only copper nodes and no tin at all. This creates problems for
anyone else looking for tin, and for you when you need more tin to work
on crafting. If you mine every node and not just the juicy ones, the
desired ore type will respawn in more acceptable proportions. This is
one reason why it is sometimes difficult to find certain ore types in
low-level areas: short-sighted, greedy players are collecting only one
ore type and ignoring nodes of the other type. Just hit every node, and
if you collect too much of one ore type, sell the surplus to a vendor
or auction it off. It's actually a really good way to make money.

1. Mining rights are determined primarily by who gets there
   first.
2. People who steal resource nodes are called "ninjas." Or
   worse.
3. If
   you see someone fighting a mob while standing next to or near a
   resource node, the node belongs to that person. He is defending it so
   that he may mine it. Pass by.
4. If someone gets there first but doesn't harvest the node
   immediately, pass on by. They may be switching tools or
   lagging a bit.
5. Accept that there are d-bags in the game who don't seem to
   understand
   that resource nodes respawn over time and will ninja resources from
   under you. While you are perfectly within your rights to be irritated
   or angry with them, it is poor etiquette to cuss them out on regional
   or other public channels. Keep it limited to private tells.
6. Even if you only need tin, take the copper as well, and
   vice versa.
   And take all the resources from the node, not just the ores/wood -
   leaving behind the extra stuff causes the node to not respawn for other
   players.

Basically, be considerate and use common sense. If you
wouldn't want someone doing it to you, don't do it to everyone else.

Hrolfni has gathered up some copper and tin now, and it's time
to turn it into
something useful. First stop is the forge, where he smelts the copper
and tin ore into ingots. This is pretty easy - open up the crafting
panel (hit T, or simply click on the forge), click on the Prospector
tab at the top, find the ore you wish to smelt and make it. Items can
be made 1 at a time or in small quantities by selecting the desired
amount in the Quantity box (type it in there or use the arrows to
increase or decrease the number) and clicking the Make button, or can
be made in bulk by clicking the Make All button. This works for
smelting ore or making large quantities of crafted ingredients - the
game will determine how many of an item can be made according to the
amount of appropriate ingredients the player has in his inventory, and
then automatically make them all in one go. For processing ore, Make
All is usually the way to go - just do it all at once, and you can walk
away for a bit  while your toon hammers away. 

Now
he has several bronze ingots and is ready to forge a mighty new axe,
the likes of which have never been seen before. Well, okay, maybe just
something that's a bit better than the crap stuff he has now. Looking
through his list, he sees he has a recipe for a Bronze Axe, and
that it is slightly better than the Honed Axe he got from a
quest during the introduction. The Bronze Sword requires one component:
a Bronze Blade. Hrolfni looks under the Components section in his list
and sees that this component requires 2 Bronze Ingots. No problem, he
has lots. He switches to his Inferior Smithing Hammer, hammers out
a Bronze Blade, and converts that into a dandy Bronze Axe.

Crafting
the component and the finished weapon gave him 10 crafting XP, which
filled his meter a tiny bit. In order to make better weapons with
higher-quality materials, he is going to have to make a lot of quick
stuff and fill the XP bar to advance to the next tier, Journeyman. He
starts off by using up the rest of his bronze ingots to make several
bronze weapons, which are worth 10 XP each (4 for the blade component,
6 for the finished product). He had enough materials to make 4 weapons,
including the mighty Bronze Axe for himself, which gives him a grand
total of 40 crafting experience points. He needs to make many more to
earn the 200 points he needs to fill the XP bar and advance to the next
tier, so he must run around Ered Luin for a while gathering up loads of
copper and tin or buy it off the auction house.

Buying crafting materials off the auction house is not advised
for people just starting out. The player-driven economy generally
favors the players who have a lot of coin to spend, and very new
players will seldom have the kind of coin they need to be able to
afford the amounts of materials they will need to advance their
crafting. For example, at the time of this writing there are a number
of auctions for copper ingots, generally running between 20 to 40
silver per ingot. From a "standing start," a player would need to make
60 bronze weapons to gain mastery of the Apprentice tier, and each
weapon requires one each of copper and tin ingots.  At current
auction house pricing, that will run from 1.2 to 2.4 gold just for the
copper, which is far beyond what most new players will have at their
disposal, and possibly exceeds the gold cap for free-to-play accounts.
In fact, with that much money, you could buy a small house instead.
Better to put in the time and gather the ores yourself, or try to
haggle privately on the Trade channel and hope for a more reasonable
price.

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ADVANCEMENT AND ADVANCED CRAFTING

When Hrolfni earns 200 crafting XP, his progress bar will fill
and he will no longer earn experience for crafting the same items. At
that point, he must talk to someone to pick up an advancement quest.
For Prospector, he talks to the Supplier and gets a book to read. For
Weaponsmith, he talks to the Novice Weaponcrafter and has to travel to
Bree-land to do a quest. In this case, it is just a matter of talking
to a person, but at higher tiers the quests will be rather more
involved.
For these more advanced quests, the character is given a unique
single-use recipe (which must be read to get added to the crafting
list) requiring exotic materials. Once the materials are gathered and
the new item crafted, the character can hand in the quest and continue
advancing his crafting. These quests are different for each profession,
but usually all start with the relevant supplier vending his wares in
any crafting hall.

Once this first quest is completed and the gold anvil is
opened up, the character has a chance of scoring a  critical
success when crafting items. A critical success results in a superior
version of the same item - compare the Fine Bronze Axe with the
non-crit Bronze Axe. When making components, a critical success means
you get more components with the same amount of resources - 3 Bronze
Blades instead of just 1, for example. Characters have a base chance of
5% to crit on an item, and this chance can be increased by using
higher-quality tools, using crafting lore scrolls made by scholars, or
by using additional components. These components are listed in the
crafting panel on the bottom right - the crit item for the Bronze
Axe is
Crude Whetstone, which can be found in copper and tin nodes. If you
have this item in your inventory, you can tick the box to use it for
crafting and have a +45% chance to crit on the item. 

Each craft uses a different crit item type - weaponsmiths use
whetstones, armorers use brimstone, woodworkers use resin, scholars use
candles, tailors use flax fibres, cooks use different herbs and
jewelers use rock salts. These items are mostly found in resource nodes
(whetstones, brimstone and rock salt in ore nodes, fibres and resin in
wood nodes, candles in scholar nodes, herbs in fields planted by
farmers) or occasionally looted from humanoid corpses. In dire
emergencies, these items can sometimes be found for sale on the auction
house, but be prepared to pay dearly for them.

Once the bronze progress bar is filled and the gold bar is
opened up, Hrolfni can begin working on Journeyman crafting, and can
even advance to mastery of Journeyman and unlock Expert tier. But he
will want to finish mastery of Apprentice tier at some point in order
to open up mastery of later tiers. Personally, I like to finish mastery
of each tier before moving on to the next one, but individual
preference may vary.

Journeyman tier works the same way as Apprentice tier: gather
resources, process resources, craft components, assemble into usable
items. But instead of bronze, Hrolfni will need Barrow-iron, which is
rare in Ered Luin. To gether Barrow-iron, he will have to find nodes in
higher-level areas. Also, the higher-tier items have higher level
requirements - a basic Iron Axe has a level requirement of 14.

At higher tiers, the crafter can find and use rare single-use
recipes to make outstanding items of high quality. These typically have
higher resource requirements than standard recipes and often call for
other rare items like gem shards. Most production crafts have such
recipes, except for Cooks.

In the image at left, you can see a single-use Journeyman-tier
recipe for a Forged Steel Axe (this is not Hrolfni, who is still
struggling through Apprentice tier, but a level-capped Historian who
has maxed out his Weaponsmithing). It requires 2 crafted components
plus a
sapphire shard, which can be obtained as a quest reward, from the
Crafting vendor at a skirmish camp, or by killing rare elite mobs in
low-level areas. The crit item is a Master Journeyman Weaponsmith's
Journal, which can be crafted by a Scholar (and also comes from a
single-use recipe and requires a sapphire shard). These journals give a
smaller increase to the crit chance - 35% instead of 45% - but the
critted items are about the best a character can get at that level. The
non-crit items are pretty darn good on their own, but the critted ones
are markedly superior.

Another unique thing about that Forged Steel Axe is that it is
a multiple-output recipe. There are several recipes for different
crafts that have mutiple options selectable by the crafter. Most of
them are for higher tiers, but there are a few lower-tier ones as well.
The Forged Steel Axe can be made into a Forged Steel Axe of Combat
(with melee bonuses that a melee class would want) or a Forged Steel
Axe of Tactics (with tactical bonuses such as a Minstrel might want).
The crafter can pick which variation he wants to make by clicking
through the available options at the top of the right-hand pane.

Recipes like this one are random drops from humanoid mobs. The
things drop everywhere, from goblins in the Shire to Draig-Luth raiders
in Enedwaith, and from some boss encounters. Some recipes can also be
bought from vendors in crafting halls, or bought or bartered from
reputation vendors throughout Middle-Earth. And some recipes are more
valuable than others - single-use recipes generally sell for more money
than multiple-use recipes, but not always. Keep your eyes open for
them, particularly in the days immedately after a big update when they
are particularly valuable. After the November update, new dye recipes
were selling for 10 gold or more each. If you're one of the lucky few
that finds a juicy new Tier 6 scholar recipe during the first few hours
of an update launch, you can more or less set your own price and
someone will probably pay it. And then re-sell it for 50% more.

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WHERE TO FIND RESOURCES

Some newer people have a hard time finding the appropriate
materials for their crafting tier. This is understandable - the game is
non-linear and the locations of resources can be confusing. In general,
resources can be found in areas where quests and mobs are on-level for
that crafting tier. For example, Dwarf-iron, which is used to make
items for the level 35 - 45 range, can be found in areas with level 35
- 45 quests and mobs: northwest Evendim, Trollshaws, Misty Mountains,
southern Angmar. These resources also produce the crit items for their
respective tiers. Instead of expecting every reader to automagically
know these areas offhand, here's a handy reference chart.

cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
Resources Where
to Find colspan="2">Apprentice Copper, Tin

Rowan

Amethyst, Agate Nodes in Ered Luin, the Shire, southeast Bree-land Light Hides Wolves, bears, cave-claws and other furry critters in
Ered Luin, the Shire, southeast Bree-land Tier 1 Scholar Rare nodes in ruins in Ered Luin, the Shire, southeast
Bree-land; also dropped by undead, goblins, Dourhand dwarves and humans
in these areas. Yarrow roots for gold dye can be found in Bree-land and
the Shire and near Duillond in Ered Luin. Sienna for dyes can be found
in tin nodes. Lily-of-the-Valley leaves for Pea-green Wall Paint are a
rare drop from critted Lily-of-the-Valley fields. colspan="2">Journeyman Barrow-iron, Silver

Ash

Bloodstone, Opal Nodes in north and west Bree-land, Greenfields in the
Shire, Haudh Lin in Ered Luin, southeast North Downs, southeast
Lone-lands Medium Hides Fur-bearing animals in those same areas. Occasionally
found on boars, but less often. Tier 2 Scholar Nodes in ruins in north and west Bree-land, southwest
North Downs and southwest Lone-lands. Also occasionally drop from
undead, goblins, orcs and humans in these areas. Copper salts for olive
dye can be found in copper ore nodes, umber for umber dye can be found
in Barrow-iron nodes, iris roots for grey dye are rare drops from
critted iris fields. colspan="2">Expert Rich iron, Gold

Yew

Ruby, Sapphire Nodes in north and east North Downs, east half of
Lone-lands, south Evendim Sturdy Hides Wargs, wolves, bears and aurochs in these areas. The
aurochs around Esteldin often drop 2 at a time.  Tier 3 Scholar Nodes in Nain Enidh, Minas Eriol and Iorvinas in Lone-lands. Also dropped by orcs,
goblins, undead and humanoids. Woad for navy dye grows wild in North
Downs and Lone-lands. Juicy Blackberry and Bluebottle petals
for violet and turquoise dye are rare drops from farmer fields. colspan="2">Artisan Dwarf-iron, Platinum

Lebethron

Adamant Nodes in Trollshaws, southwest Angmar, northwest
Evendim, southwest Misty Mountains. Get lots of Dwarf-iron, it is
needed for a few Tier 5 recipes. Pristine Hides Wargs, wolves, bears and such in the same areas. Tier 4 Scholar Nodes in ruins in these areas. Tier 4 Scholar mats can
also be found in Garth Agarwen and are dropped by the same mob types
that drop lower-tier stuff. Indigo plants for Indigo and Evendim Blue
dyes grow in Trollshaws and Eregion. Amaranth petals, onion skins,
bluebottle petals and lily-of-the-valley leaves are all rare drops from
farmed fields. colspan="2">Master Ancient Iron, Ancient Silver

Black Ash

Beryl, Moonstone Nodes in east Angmar, east Misty Mountains, Forochel,
and most of Eregion. Ores can be mined in Sarnur in Ered Luin. Exceptional Hides Furry mobs in the same areas. Higher-level mobs in
Angmar and southern Eregion will drop Magnificent Hides instead. Tier 5 Scholar Nodes in ruins in these areas. There are also many
nodes in Haudh Iarchith in southern Barrow Downs, and all of them drop
Master-tier Scholar supplies. Bloodwort root, juicy strawberry, onion
skin, juicy elderberry and bluebottle petals are all rare drops from
farmed fields. Piles of ancient iron oxides are found in ancient iron
nodes. colspan="2">Supreme Khazad-Copper, Khazad-Tin

Ilex Southeast Eregion and the western depths of Moria.
There is a mine in Redhorn Lodes near Orc-watch with a healthy supply
of Khazad-copper, and another one in Zelem-Melek with loads of Ilex.
Khazad-copper is one of the most rare commodities and prices on the
auction house reflect this. Khazad-tin is essentially junk. Khazad-Iron, Khazad-Gold

Mallorn Western spaces in Moria, Lothlorien, Mirkwood and
Enedwaith. There is a cave beside each of the ones mentioned above for
these materials. Magnificent Hides Wargs and wolves around Echad Dunnan in Eregion,
cave-claws and cave-diggers in western Moria. A good "farming" spot is
Katub-Zahar, the big library northeast of Dolven-view that's filled
with quick-respawning cave-diggers. Extraordinary Hides Cave-diggers and cave-claws in eastern Moria, and any
of the furry critters in Lothlorien. Mirkwood and Enedwaith. Tier 6 Scholar All throughout Moria, Lothlorien, Mirkwood and ruins in
Enedwaith.Chunks of Lime for white dye can be found in Tier 6 ore nodes.

Farmer and Cook materials work a bit differently. Farmers can
buy everything they need from teh Expert Farmhand in the field just
north of Hobbiton in the Shire. Cooks can buy many of their ingredients
from the Expert Cook in the crafting area near Michel Delving, and that
which cannot be purchased from a vendor can be farmed by a Farmer (or
bartered from one).

Of course, there's always Plan B. In the case of crafting,
Plan B involved buying ingredient packs from the LotRO Store. Notice
the big button on the screenshots that says "Get Ingredients" -
clicking that button will take you to the appropriate item in the LotRO
Store, where you can purchase all the mats for a single item (minus the
crit items) for 25 points. Ingredient packs are pretty simple - they
are arranged according to tier, and will work for any craft, but you
only get the goods to make one item. They are practically useless for
making consumable items like potions, which are most often made in
large batches at a time. You can buy ingredient packs in bulk for a
discount, but even then, that's burning a lot of points that could be
spent on necessities like quest packs or skirmishes, and it can take a
fairly long time to rebuild points spent on something impermanent.
Furthermore, items made with ingredient packs are bound to the
crafter's account. They can't be sold on the auction house or traded to
other players. But when you find that one "Oh wow!" recipe and you
absolutely, positively need it right now and can't be bothered to
gather the materials, ingredient packs are just fine.

Players can also buy recipes from the LotRO Store. While not
every recipe in the game is available this way, a player can round out
his crafting lineup with some store-bought supplemental recipes and
fill a few gaps here and there. Also notice in the screenshots that
there is a button at the bottom of the crafting panel that says
"Increase Crafting XP" - clicking this button also opens up the store
and takes you to the Tome of Crafting XP Acceleration page. Using these
books for crafting earns the character more points per crafted item,
much the same way as deed acceleration tomes increase kill-counts for
deeds for a limited time. This can be handy for powering through the
tiers fast, but it can also be expensive if you are f2p and on a
limited Turbine Point budget.

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JOINING A GUILD

After you've worked your way up to Expert tier in any
production craft, you can join a crafting guild. There are 6 crafting
guilds you can join: Metalsmiths or Weaponsmiths in Thorin's Hall,
Cooks
in Michel Delving, Tailors, Jewellers or Woodworkers in Esteldin, or
Scholars in Rivendell. Joining a crafting guild provides the crafter
with several benefits, but it takes a bit of work to earn them.

Firstly, once the crafter has earned enough guild reputation,
he can make large batches of things with fewer materials. For example,
a guild Tailor can make several leather bindings at once with fewer
pieces of leather, or Scholars can make a batch of 5 dyes with only the
materials required for 1. This is a much more economical way to craft
and can save hours of grinding for rare mats.

Secondly, the crafter can buy "auto-crit" recipes. These
recipes are the exact same as the crits of single-use recipes but do
not require the crafting journal component and have an automatic
critical success. These recipes have a long cooldown (one per week) and
require an additional rep item component, which also has a cooldown (1
- 7 days, depending on which component is needed).

Thirdly, when the character reaches Supreme tier and earns
Kindred standing with his guild, he can fashion legendary items and
crafted relics for legendary items. All guild-kindred crafters can make
crafted relics, and all but cooks can make some kind of legendary item.
Cooks, for their part, can make special teas that grant the drinker
accelerated item experience - like "blue bar" for your LI.

Lastly, high standing in the guild opens doors later on.
Special recipes from Lothlorien and Mirkwood rep vendors allow you to
craft awesome stuff that's way better than the stuff non-guilded
crafters can make.

Joining a guild is easy - just talk to the guild
representative in any crafting hall, pick the profession, and you're
signed up. Advancing within the guild takes a bit of work.

The first thing you will want to do when joining a guild is to
visit the guild HQ and pick up the rep item recipes. These crafted rep
items have fairly stiff material requirements but typically grant loads
of crafting XP when made. Expert and Artisan tiers have Small and
Medium rep items, and Master and Supreme have those two plus Large.
These are all worth varying amounts of reputation with the guild, and
you will need to make loads of them to reach Kindred standing. While
you are working towards Kindred standing, it's generally a good idea to
just turn in all the rep items you make rather than using them for
auto-crits because the recipes have long cooldowns. Small rep items can
be made daily, Mediums can be made every 3 days, and Large can be made
but once a week. They are also bind-on-aquire and cannot be sold or
traded to other characters. You can't just buy them when you want to
power-level your rep like you can with many other reputation-based
factions.

Once you reach Kindred standing, it won't hurt to keep making
these things. You need them for the guild recipes.

So there you have it. Crafting is really not all that
complicated once you get started, and for some players it is one of the
more rewarding aspects of the game. It is certainly a very detailed
system, but it's fairly straightforward and easy to learn once you get
your hands dirty and start figuring out how it works.

By the way, if you want to be able to do every craft, all you
need is 4 characters: one Woodsman, one Historian, one Armourer, one
Tinker. That's all you need to be entirely self-sufficient.