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The November 2010 update introduced significant interface changes to the crafting process. They did not really change it in any material sense, but it is much better organized, now, and easier to understand. The major updates were:
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There are 10 different Professions, grouped by three's, into seven Vocations. Obviously, most professions will be a part of the skill-set of more than one Vocation. You can only practice a single vocation at a time, but can change vocations at any time by speaking to a Master of Apprentices. Any experience in the professions of your former vocation are, unfortunately, lost. On the up side, this system allows practice and mastery of three professions, not just one. Every Vocation gets at least one Gathering profession and one Production profession.
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All professions receive their basic recipes for each proficiency level automatically, but for the Production professions that is just the start. Almost all mobs in the world have a chance to drop recipes, especially intelligent monsters (Brigands, Orc-kin, etc). Also, recipes for Journeyman and Expert are for sale from the Novices in the Crafting Halls.
On the Profession pages we list mainly those recipes that come automatically with each new crafting rank. Other recipes must be bought or found.
For each Crafting Profession there are six levels of Proficiency: Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert, Artisan, Master, and Supreme. You will start as an Apprentice in all three Professions that fall within your Vocation. When you reach 200 points in any one of them you will need to complete a simple quest. Who gives it to you will depend on what the profession is and where you are. It will be either the Supplier, or a Novice or Expert in your profession. Next you will need 400 points of Apprentice-grade practice and 280 of Journeyman. When you complete the 400 Apprentice-level points you may again talk to the same NPC for the quest to be considered as having mastered your Apprentice lessons. Do the same for Journeyman and you will become an Expert. Before you can unlock Mastery of your current rank and get your next rank you will need to perform a small quest which you can get from your craft's vendor. Gathering crafts get this from any Supplier.
Only when a given Tier of proficiency is mastered can you get recipes of that tier to crit for special highly-valued items, and only then can you work on Proficiency of the next higher tier.
Tier | Proficiency | Mastery |
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Apprentice | 200 | 400 |
Journeyman | 280 | 560 |
Expert | 360 | 720 |
Artisan | 440 | 880 |
Master | 520 | 1040 |
Supreme | 600 | 1200 |
Once you have mastered a proficiency level, recipes of that tier have a chance to "crit". These means you have a chance (starting at 5%) to make a product that is better than the basic recipe states. For refining this results in more product. Crit Chance can be improved through the use of special materials, such as Crude Whetstones<s> for Weaponsmithing. These special items drop from all mobs throughout the world. Be sure to offer for trade any items that you cannot use in exchange for those you can.
To use the mastery item, click on the tab with the blue background and the anvil. There you can see your base Critical Success chance and any items that can be used to raise it. You will also see an icon there of the item you could make if the recipe procs a Critical Success. Check the Use box to tell the crafting tool to use a mastery item. Be sure to un-check it when you want it to stop or you could unintentionally burn through all your mastery items. Save them for items that have a chance to proc gear you really want!
When you achieve proficiency at Master-level skills you will need to visit a crafting Master at one of the Crafting Halls before you can begin work on Supreme-level skills.
Possession and use of higher quality tools increases the base chance for Critical Success and/or decreases the time it takes to create/plant/harvest so you work faster.
Most professions fall into one of these two categories, while a couple can do both. Gathering professions are the gatherers of raw resources. They can then refine them into an item that is usable by one or more of the Production crafts. Production crafts take the refined resources and turn them into products of use to other players.
The two exceptions are Farmer and Scholar. Farmers actually create their own resource nodes by planting seeds which grow into fields that can then be harvested. Scholars are the only class that both Harvest and Produce.
Cook is the oddball. While he can turn Farmer produce into food, he can also harvest wild produce directly without a farmer (but then, everyone can harvest the wild produce nodes, but only Cook and Farmer get the Track Crops skill).
A word about Resource Nodes: In the beginning of LotRO we all thought that a given harvest node would appear in the same place as the same type every time. We later learned that in fact every spawn location for any node of the same type and tier has a random chance to be any node of that type and tier each time it respawns. This means that the Copper Deposit you harvest now could be a Tin Deposit the next time you run by it. Because of this we have begun work on consolidating all the Object pages for the same Type and Tier into a single Object page so you can see all of the locations at a glance. An example would be Journeyman Mineral Deposit which could be any one of four different nodes: Barrow-iron Deposit, Rich Barrow-iron Deposit, Silver Deposit or Rich Silver Deposit.
Only Production crafts have Guilds. So, while there is a Tailor Guild, Explorer's have no guild for Forestry and Prospecting as those are not Production skills. Recipes obtained from your guild are Superb and guaranteed to crit every time.
To join a guild you must be an Expert in the relevant profession. Once you have joined your Guild Master will explain the advancement system, but basically you buy a recipe that allows you to craft an Small Expert item which has a 24 hour cooldown and can be Bartered with your Guild Leader for an increase of 400 Reputation. After one completion you should be able to buy the Medium Expert recipe which requires more material, has a 3 day cooldown, and barters for 1,200 Reputation. So, the higher you get and the more of these recipes you have the more of them you can craft and the faster you can gain Reputation. Since it takes 10,000 to rise from Neutral to Acquaintance, and 20,000 to get to the level above that you are gonna be making these things for a long time.
There are a few quests in Middle Earth that crafters absolutely must do. It would be criminal to pass them up. One such set of quests are the three Bounty quests at The Dead Man's Perch in the Barrow-downs. These quests, Bounty: Barghest Eyes, Bounty: Cardolan Relics, and Bounty: Wight-skulls (all are level 20), each reward more than one rare crafting material such as Small Whetstone<s> and Sapphire Shard<s>, and each offers your choice of a Journeyman Scroll Case, such as Journeyman Tailor Scroll Case<s>, which contains a random rare recipe. Each of these quests can be repeated three times.
There is another set of three at Nen Harn in the Northern Bree-fields. For a display of the quests that are specifically for Crafters, see the Crafting quest series.
To learn a Vocation, or change your Vocation, simply speak to any Master of Apprentices. These can be found in most places where you find a concentration of crafting stations (Forge, Oven and Workbench). Choosing the right Vocation for the Production Craft that you want to master is important if you want to be as self-sufficient as possible. The Master of Apprentices will give you the basic Apprentice recipes and a set of Basic Tools. These are of low quality and you should look for an upgrade as soon as possible.
For example, a Tailor needs leather, and lots of it. Anyone can kill bears and get hides, but only the Forester can tan the hides into leather. So if you want to be a Tailor, then Explorer would be your Vocation of choice.
Any of your Gathering professions will also include a tracking skill that, when turned on, will cause Resource Nodes of thattype to show on the minimap of the UI. Only resources for that profession will highlight and, if you have more than one, swotching back and forth is not advised as there is a cooldown before the tracking skill can be used again. Just pick the one resource type you need most and keep that one turned on at all times.
Vocation | Professions | Notes | |
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Armsman | Prospector, Weaponsmith, Woodworker | ||
Armourer | Metalsmith, Prospector, Tailor | ||
Explorer | Forester, Tailor, Prospector | ||
Historian | Farmer, Scholar, Weaponsmith | ||
Tinker | Cook, Prospector, Jeweller | Community-created Tinker's Guide on Lorebook | |
Woodsman | Farmer, Forester, Woodworker | ||
Yeoman | Cook, Farmer, Tailor |
The following sections will include information on the Type, Vocations, Tools and Crafting Stations needed, as well as some basic information on Recipes and Materials. Only the most basic of profession's needs will be covered here.
The first fields you will probably plant will be in Staddle. A Pipeweed Field is at Gammy Bogg's Farm, and a good Vegetable Field can be found next-door as well as a Novice Farmhand for you to buy supplies from. Leveling up is very easy here, at least through Expert, and can be done quickly.
Each recipe is in three parts. First is the sowing of seeds and reaping of harvest. Harvesting yields Fair Crops and Poor Crops. Next is the processing of fair and poor crops. Fair crop gives you finished Produce, Poor Crop gives only seeds for you to reuse. If you are lucky, Harvesting and Processing can also give a Rare for Tailors, Cooks or Scholars. There are three kinds of Crop you can grow: Pipeweed, Vegetables, and Grain. All require some number of seeds plus a Bucket of Water<s> and a Handful of Fertilizer<s> (which can be bought from appropriate Farmhands). Recipes above Expert will require better Water and Fertilizer, and better Farmland.
On some recipes you will see the Mastery tab light up. This means that there are additional ingredients you can add that will improve your crop (increase Critical Success to 100%), such as Pile of Rivendell Soil. These can be purchased from Expert Farmhands.
The Field of grown crops will appear in the direction you are facing when planting is finished so you can turn during planting to avoid having the fields appear one on top of the other. This makes Harvesting easier. Do not ever plant more than four Fields at the same time, and not more than three unless you are very alert, or the first will "wither" and fade before you can harvest it. Simply right-click the field to harvest it just the same as any harvestable resource node. No other farmer can harvest your fields. It is flagged just the same as if it were a mob corpse someone else killed.
TIP: If you plant four fields at a time and turn between each so they do not overlap, you can click on all four to harvest, one after the other, and you will harvest all four, in the order clicked, with no further action!
One more thing: Farming is hard work and hard on your tools. Get the best tools you can afford, but also be sure to watch their Durability and repair them often! That said, it is also the easiest Profession to Master, as you do not have to hunt for Resource Nodes.
For recipes of all gifted recipes, by tier, see Farmer.
At each tier you will be able to take 2 hides and make leather, and a type of wood (plus some wax) to make a Plank of lumber.
For more information, including a table showing what you can harvest and what you can make from it, see Forester.
See Jeweller for more information.
Guardians in particular should take note of their services: for if one cannot provide a strong front line defense, then darkness will consume not only the person in question, but all allies involved.
Arguably the most common gathering profession, the prospector is quintessential to the success of Armsmen, Armorers, Explorers and Tinkerers. For in each of these vocations the use of material ore is essential to the craft of weapons, armor and the like. Any player that finds the need of ore would certainly be advised to gather at every possible moment and save whenever possible.
For each tier there will be two types of Ore that may be mined, a Hard Metal and a Soft Metal. For each ore type there will be normal and large nodes. Large nodes will have the same drops but will yield more of the ore and a better chance at multiple Rare harvests. At a Forge you may Smelt the Ore into Ingots (2 to 1). Then you may Refine the ingots into a final product such as Bronze and Steel or various precious metals. Gems can be polished by a Jeweler and used in recipes by Armorsmiths, Weaponsmiths, Metalsmiths and, of course, Jewelers.
For tables of Harvestables by Tier and Smelting & Refining recipes and results, see Prospector.
One of the nice things about Scholar is that you do not need a crafting station to craft (at least not the simple, early recipes). You can do it anywhere.
For more information, see Scholar.
The Tailor is a highly warranted craft for those in need of protection on the field of battle. Henceforth, if one takes the path of a minstrel, hunter or lore-master, it would be advisable to seek the services of the Tailor on a regular basis.
In any battle against the forces of the Dark Lord Sauron, a valued weapon in hand will mean the difference between victory and defeat, life or death. It is for this reason that players should seek out the Weaponsmith at every possible opportunity to ensure they always have the advantage in battle.
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