Not too pull much from discusion but playing several MMo type games Anarchy Online , Ffxi , and now WoW. I've come to notice really crafting is as much as your going to pull out of it.
Keep in mind there are several Types of crafters out there similar to your types of player...
Grinder: These are the people who will get a craft to 300 with least amount of money spent and do it in a few hours. Drop it in a heartbeat to gain its advantage a few times and move on.
Pleasure: People who have multiple characters and usually have several crafts often 1 of each to 300. These people often tend to not unlearn a craft but just make a new char.
Factory: These are people who have 9 level 35 characters with 300 cloth craft , and 1 level 60 char. to farm felcloth.
Recipe Master: These people have every recipe in the game involving there craft often only play this character, and focus there crafting only on this character.
Now you may go, "well my style is a combo of each of those." I agree we all are abit of that.
My Exp. : During the AnarchyOnline years crafting was reserved for classes(classes i wasn't). A few years later after enjoying the years of raiding and getting raid gear i moved on to ffxi. Ffxi was abit diffrent you could be anything and craft anything with in certain levels.. Ffxi the point of crafting was differences between NQ and HQ1,2 (This determined how much a product would sell for). I went clothcraft it was pretty long and hard road spent a year in cloth before i gave it up ( Hit the silk road and spent alot of time in misery due to silks price). Decided for Alchemy, and at that time my character was a 70black mage / 69 Thief, Alchemy materials were fairly reasonable farming usually lower mobs or Doll type mobs, sprouts, etc so i could farm materials, esp with having TH ( Treasure Hunter ) which would drop items like crazy. Life was better then got to about 82 alchemy and could put buffs on weapons and HQ 1 and 2 the lower weapons, and for my friends which would be there upgrades at lower/higher levels, and make Potions aswell. A year or so later my Alchemy was 100, maximum in that game and i was making the equvilant of epics, temp enchants etc.. Slowly got out of that game as i hit frosh year of college and played Wow for abit due to the restraints on time. Played on crushridge, and got a feel for the crafting system, and the level grinds on Horde as a Shaman. Took a break from the game due to alot of hardships out side the game and working to survive.. eventually came back about 1.8ish. Moved to burning legion where i am now, doing well too. I will say here's a quick tip for people who dont have alot of time and want to enjoy crafting:
Make a Work character first ( Fury War, Combat Rogue ) and, pick up mining/herbalism/skinning any combo of the two and basically level to 50 on them. Level fast and Get ok gear and make your choice of what crafts you want to do. Make a another character, like the one you really want to play. Grind one day Exp. the next day. You will find that grinding will level your work char and make you money. Every other day play your desired char and you will have rest XP making effective time of both chars. From there you have a decent developement. Wow is really forgiving with this aspect even if you only have a few hours a day to play. Why you say? Depends on your level of commitement but if you can stick with it and not slack off too much and try to play on the weekend abit you can make progress.
My current situation is that i have about... 2 to 3 hours a day, and all weekend. Right now im leveling my rogue to 60 before expansion so i can keep going and max at 70 by Feb or March on my Rogue. Then ill kick down some time to make 5 or 6 alts for a few months.
Best tactic if you have **ALOT** of time for WoW grind a char to 35 and max there crafting to 300 on 2 crafts that yeild services. Rinse and Repeat. I have seen this take as little as 3 to 5 days a character for some (Extremely Dedicated) people and have made themselves extremely rich making Mooncloth robes in only 7 days; Enchanted Thorium Bars; Armor kits, etc.
Some of you are going to say we knew this already.. Thats great :) really is, but are you doing it? How effectively are you using you alts/mules? Dont just use them as storage bins.. ( What about the investment to get them there.. ?) Fyi Bop's and Boe's can be found for steals and often making it to 35 on just green's is really easy. 15g for a mooncloth bag can buy accouple decent swords and armor for a combat rogues. Lets do some math (-50Gold*A)= -((A*15Gold)*D) lets say A = amount of chars you raising ; D = ever 4 days of having that chars, and lets put this equation to the test. A = 1char D= 1day. -50g = -15g , and you add the +15 the -50 = -35gold .. lets put this at D=4 .
-50g = -((1*15Gold)*4) = -50g = -60g = when they are set equal +10g at day 16
Ok so where am i getting the 50gold ? 50gold is the Start up gold to take a char to 35... this was unrealistic, i think you could do it with about 25g in all greens. The point is the equation can be adjusted.
(-Q*A)=-((A*B)*D) or ((A*B)*D)+(-Q*A)
Q = Investment on Crafter Char
A = Number of crafter Chars
B = Amount the ending sevice will provide in revinue
D = Increments needed ( ie Moon cloth is 4 days, so D*4 = amount of days needed)
The point is crafting is just another way to level besides level grinding its an alternative to level grinding... Pvp is like this in the BG's.. There not really trade off's there just something to do to have fun and enjoy a game with your friends. Blizzard happens to make the enjoyment not so party orientated. Its not so much are the BOP's and BOE's going to rival raid drops its going to be more of the point when you spend time working on something it will yeild similar productivity... ie Endgame Armor, weapons, Crafting ability.
Myself personally i rather enjoy the crafting aspect..
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Anarchy Online:
Arcenik 201 Agent :: Atlantian , Retired (Given to friends in game)
Mercs: Flagged, 3/8 Set :: Jobe Tier 1: 8/8 , Tier 2: 5/8
Notumwars: Yes :: Jobe: Yes :: Ai: Yes
Org History: Axis, Reloaded, AvR
Ffxi:
Tarryk 73blm/69thf/all other Jobs 37 :: Fairy Server , Retired(Given as a gift)
BLM AF1:Ok :: THF AF1:Ok :: SKY:Ok :: RANK: 10 Windurst :: ZM: 17
Dynamis: Windurst:OK :: San'ordia: OK :: Bostok: Ok
Social Link Shell: Caretaker , Jinx , Avatar
Dynamis: OSD
WoW:
Tarryk 47 Shaman : ( Elemental Build ) :: Crushridge , Retired (Given as a B-day present)
Current Guild: Unguilded
Reileen 46 Mage : ( Fire Build ) :: Burning Legion , retired
Current Guild: Unguilded
Switchbladeq 54 Rogue : ( Sword Combat build ):: Burning Legion, Active
Current Guild: Unguilded
Edited, Dec 17th 2006 6:55am by Reileen