Tradeskill Basics

Crafting Levels 1-10

Guide by: Savanja

Special thanks to Stefman123 for his contributing ideas for our crafting guides!

I have never been big on tradeskills in game, which is ironic given that I started out my MMORPG career as a scribe in Ultima Online. I was afraid to venture too far away from the city, so I stayed where it was safe! Once I did venture though, I never turned back, and I didn't like the idea of being cooped up in a sweatshop for hours of my gaming day. Now that my character has maxed out on adventure levels, I thought I'd give crafting a try just to see how it is. It isn't quite as bad as I had envisioned, and now I actually enjoy hanging out in the tradeskill instance for short periods of time! So since I'm noobing (is that a word?) my way through learning to craft, I thought I'd drag my fellow tradeskilling virgins along with me! Don't worry, I'll be gentle.

The first step in crafting in EQ2 is finding where and figuring out what.

The "where" is fairly easy. You will need a crafting station and those can be found in various places. Basically, the starting isles, and each village around Qeynos and Freeport will have a tradeskill zone. Kelethin and Neriak have their tradeskill areas arranged differently, and you will find the stations throughout the zones in the open areas. I much prefer the trade zones, but some like having the stations in the open cities. If you are new to game, you will want to talk with a crafting trainer, one is found in the starting locations, or in front of any of the tradeskill zones. Or better yet, if you are seriously not at all familiar with the crafting process, and are a new character to the game, you will find a "Seeking a Tradeskill Profession" in your inventory once you have arrived in your starting city, or you may get one from a tradeskill trainer if you deleted it long ago like I did. This quest will not only teach you the basics, but it will also gain you recipes and levels!

The "what" of crafting is a bit more difficult. We all start out as an Artisan, and will be such until we pick a crafter class at the completion of level 9. During your first 9 levels of crafting, take some time to try all of the various "jobs" and see if you find one that appeals to you. If if doesn't really matter to you which one you choose and you are guilded, try picking something that your guild could use. This will ensure you plenty of work (and lots of friends) in the future!

Now that you you know where to go, it is time to craft something!

Crafting works in tiers, so for levels 1-9, you'll be harvesting in the starting areas around Qeynos or Freeport, or in the starting areas of Greater Faydark's Nursery or The Darklight Woods. You'll need to know what each harvesting node drops:

Tier 1

You will also need to purchase a fuel for each each station:

Recipe books can be purchased off of the broker or from the crafting trainer.

For the early levels, I suggest harvesting everything and anything (you will need LOTS of bags for this), so that you have it all on hand and can test out the various skills.

Once you have everything you need for each recipe, and are ready to craft, I'd take a moment to learn about your tradeskill abilities. During the tradeskill process, there will be an occurrence shown on your tradeskill dialog box. You counter each one of these with the corresponding icon from the lower bar on your tradeskill window. If you hover over these abilities, you will see that each one does something for you. You can manipulate your durability and state bars with these abilities in addition to using them to counter. You'll have one ability that increases durability and one that increases progress without penalty (the others have a penalties in use). These are ones that you will use when you aren't countering. If things are going well durability wise, you can make your progress go faster by hitting the progress icon. If you are in danger of dropping on the durability bar, spam the icon that increases durability to ensure you don't lose out.

Now that you have all your needed items, and are all set up..Craft something!

It doesn't take long to level up in crafting, and I made level 9+ before I ran out of harvested supplies.

At this point you will want to choose your tradeskill class and progress to level 10. To do this, you will need to talk to a Crafting Trainer. In Qeynos: Alfred Ironforge on the dock in Qeynos Harbor (where the construction is happening). In Freeport: Alethea Augustine in West Freeport at the Coalition of Tradesfolke. For Neriak, the crafting trainer is in the building with the bank. For Kelethin the crafting trainer is just outside Tunare's Pages. They also put trainers outside of the crafting instances which was a very nice addition!

Ding! You are now level 10 and are either a craftsman, outfitter, or scholar. Congrats!

Next we will look at more advanced tradeskilling in levels 10-20.

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