Are there any crafting systems still in place which do not require sacrificing a virgin paragon goat for?
I raise this question after being asked by a few newer players who are at the point to pick up a crafting skill though are a bit overwhelmed with the task of climbing the crafting mountain. Also after trying to craft a few things myself and have been a bit at a loss, then again I have been away for a good while so I know things change but damn.


So the task of crafting currently requires the initial grind and purchase of a 120 PS and further grind to get 120 skill in a certain craft. After the grind it feels like you are finally able to make some progress maybe craft up a couple weapons for yourself. This is until you realize even at 120 skill you can hardly use if any runic tools, and even if you can they are nothing in comparison, kind of a kick back down to the bottom of the mountain.


Right, so now a player is faced with having to try and acquire augments and special gear which is usually safe guarded by droves of PvPers in Fel or event specific or just not readily available. Which is where I am personally at, coming back from being able to use all the runics a year ago, with now only, 2 or 3 at best available to use. So for players like me in the spot where you got all the skill gain down and are stuck at this point, it becomes a question of whats worth it? Do I heavily, I mean heavily invest into a craft in order to be efficiently skilled in it? Or do I just fork over the insane amount of gold and ED the few high end crafter players are charging for a double axe?


My two thoughts are to bring down the very lofty restrictions on crafting. Allowing access to the majority of the runic tools at skill level 120, yet still allowing restricted access to the few higher end runics for more around skill 150-175. Make the actual system more fun for players and at the same time relax the ridiculous player economy around level weapons. Really. I used to give away weapons that are being sold in the millions now. It doesn't help the overall community if only a small handful of players are the only ones with the high enough required skill to actually craft.


Thoughts?

We did put a lot of thought into the craft system and the difficulty level it takes to create that perfect base weapon, worthy of a hero!

Currently it does take a lot of time, skill and resources to create a top weapon...as it should be!

As you stated "I used to give away weapons that now sell for millions!" That was a huge problem in the past.  The tools were too easy to obtain, materials were farmed, and level deeds were too plentiful.  The economy suffers when you flood the market with great items and everyone can turn their nose up at it because they all have a "perfect" weapon in hand.

We used to see a new player with a "god" weapon within his first week...this ruins the gameplay experience and the economy.  A new player should gradually work up through all the stages of development and enjoy the game in steps.

I understand your point, that it seems too hard to craft the top weapons, but it should be.  Only players that have been on the shard and are veterans, should be able to craft at a high level.  It should take time to work up skill, mine material, and build the perfect BS suit!

We wanted Blacksmith to be a proud profession again, not just another skill to grind.  A BS should work hard at to become a "brand" name and build a reputation where all the players would seek out a Grand Master Blacksmith with his "mark" on it!

I hope this explanation creates the same vision we have, with regards to shard balance, economy and Character building

Your explanation, as always is a great reminder of why Evo is the best shard around Dante.

In the mind set of a returning vet player and now being faced with the challenge of not being able to craft anything of my prior epic quality was a bit of ... frustrating set-back. That and having a few players ask about why the crafting system was so hard and myself not having a solid answer. Though your thoughts on the systems are well done, and I have to agree. Just will take me a bit more time to be able to craft some weapons and the sort once more. Luckily I can still make my bios at a pretty decent quality.

Right, so now a player is faced with having to try and acquire augments and special gear which is usually safe guarded by droves of PvPers in Fel or event specific or just not readily available.


Thoughts?

I had thought that perhaps the power scroll bucket could be altered slightly, instead of a random scroll, perhaps you could designate which skill group the scroll would come from (IE Wilderness or crafting) then receive a random scroll  from within that group

to touch on the point of the price of crafted weapons. from what I see the prices are actually CHEAP. And some people still complain about the price (not saying you specifically Blight, just in general)

That is main reason I stopped crafting and selling weapons. Everyone wants the good stuff , but no one wants to pay for it.

if you sell weapons it is almost always at a LOSS, compared to the amount of time and resources required regardless if you farmed yourself, or bought them.

Augments are not cheap, socket deeds are not cheap. Plat hammers are not cheap (and absolutely no fun to try to farm, zzzzzz fest).

You can use lesser runics, but than you have to charge even cheaper prices to sell because they are inferior to the electrum or plat runic crafted weapons, .

Even if one is lucky enough to create one or two awesome weapons they could sell for a few millions in a session, think about all the ones that were not awesome or could not be sold at all.

We are lucky there are people like Zeus who love to craft and sell their weapons at cheap prices. I might be wrong, but I highly doubt he is making any profit whatsoever on the weapons he sells.

As a newer player i can definitely see both sides of this argument.

Crafting does indeed seem a bit of a mountain.  Both from a time investment perspective and from the lack of information that currently exists.  There have been a few recent posts on the forum and the Wiki that have helped this quite a bit.  I really would like to see a better section on the Wiki about Sockets and Augments, such as at least hints on where to get them. saying "difficult monsters" isn't particularly a clue, because difficulty is relative to gear.

Also, information on the weapon leveling system would be nice.  How many spend points per level, each stat and it's cost.  That way you could math out a "template" weapon  and see exactly how strong a weapon is at first glance.  (For example, say you see a weapon on a vendor that has dual-leech, spell channel, and a good amount of DI.  Given the information on the levelling system, you could extrapolate that weapon out to level 100 and determine it's final stats)

I understand that some things are intended to be Esoteric on purpose to create immersion however, i definitely feel that we need a bit more information on these systems.  (That may just be me, i'm a researcher/theorycrafter at heart)

I really enjoy this shard, and i love all the systems that you guys have added! It ads a lot of depth and interesting things to the game, and i'll probably be enjoying it for quite a long time