Inspiration

Grazzt

That might sound like a very stupid question, but ... what does "Inspiration" do and how does it work exactly ?
I'm guessing the more Insipration you have, the better you are at Crafting, but does anyone know how the exact mechanism work ?

Nestor

Inspiration is Crafting Experience. Not sure why it is called something different, although you can earn both Experience and Inspiration for some crafting activities. Anyway, it is Inspiration Gain that gives you levels in Crafting.

The activities that give the most Inspiration are either learning new things or deconstruction/extractions. Provisioning, and Alchemy give decent amounts for making things (as you can't decon those things anyway). Equipment Crafting (making things) gives little Inspiration. Enchanting gives a decent amount for both making and deconstruction (extraction)

Trollwut

There also is a developer sticky that explains this in every detail here on the forums.

Grazzt

Oh, so when you "level up" your Crafting professions, you're actually gaining Inspiration instead of XP ?
Trollwut can you point me to the Dev sticky that explains this maybe ?

Sandshark95

"Inspiration" is just a fancy term for XP relative to crafting. When you level your crafting skills, you gain "Inspiration" or "IP" towards those skills much in the same way you earn XP towards your weapon/class/armor/other skill trees. "IP" is essentially identical to XP for all intensive purposes; it's "crafting XP", if you will.

Grazzt

Ok, one more question for you guys then : I'd like to maximize my Inspiration gain and minimize my use of Ingots, so, let's say I wanna use 6 Ingots, should I craft a lv.16 Greatsword or a lv.20 Dagger ?
Which one will give me more Insipration for the same amount of Ingots used ?

Sandshark95

Honestly? Neither. You get very, very little IP from actually crafting things, unlike Skyrim where you could just punch out daggers all day long to raise your skill. Deconstruction yields far more IP. You'll get the most IP out of deconstructing looted items (found, stolen, quest rewards), especially if those items are higher quality (green, blue, purple, etc.) and have traits on them (Sharpened, Ornate, Precise, etc.). Items made by players other than you (can be items a different player made OR items made by you, on an alternate character) will yield the 2nd most IP.

My advice? Find a place with a lot of lootable/stealable items close to a crafting station. Loot/steal everything, deconstruct everything, log out, log back in, repeat. That will be the quickest way to gain Inspiration, though it'll be a bit of grind.

Hope that helps

Grazzt

Sandshark95 wrote: »

unlike Skyrim where you could just punch out daggers all day long to raise your skill.

I would actually love that, back in the Star Wars Galaxies days I had an alt who didn't even fight a single mob, I just raised his crafting skills all day long

Sandshark95 wrote: »

Hope that helps

It does, thanks !
But when you say "log out, log back in", does it mean that you gain less Inspiration when you stay logged in and deconstruct stuff ?

Sandshark95

No, not at all. Your IP gain does not decrease over time. The purpose of logging out and logging back in is simply to respawn all of the items you looted so you can loot and deconstruct them again. Items will gradually respawn on their own with time if you stay logged in and/or travel away from the area, but in most cases it's quicker to log out and relog. There are some areas where you don't even have to log out to get items to respawn quickly; sometimes entering and exiting an Outlaws Refuge will do the trick, though I can't confirm that it works everywhere. I'm sure there are certain popular crafting skills farming spots in each alliance that other people have posted on the web that you might be able to check out. Find one you like and grind away to your heart's content

Grazzt

Ok, thanks for the advices then !

Xulienne

I'm in Ebonheart Pact and so far I have seen a few areas that have been abandoned, but the armor and weapon racks replenish themselves and the items are not considered stealing. In EP, Davon's watch, behind the bank (on a lower level of the ground so either jump off the balcony or find the appropriate staircase, there is a heavy and medium armor rack in an abandoned village as well as a weapon rack)

Bleakrock Isle, once you have completed that quest line, the black smithing long house no longer has the merchants, but the merchants' wares still spawn. I would assume each alliance has similar situations.

I have found that about one out of every four items I pick up are either green and/or have a trait you can research. They respawn like every 15 minutes.

Grazzt

But I guess that deconstructing low-level items gives way less Inspiration than high-level ones ?

Jayne_Doe

Grazzt wrote: »

But I guess that deconstructing low-level items gives way less Inspiration than high-level ones ?

Yes, that is correct. However, if your character is low level, say level 12, they will get less experience from deconstructing a level 50 piece of gear than a character who is at level 50 will receive (regardless of their crafting skill level). However, it's still worthwhile to deconstruct higher level gear, as you still get a good amount of experience, but you won't receive any materials other than racial stones, trait stones, or tempers. Meaning that you can't deconstruct level 50 gear to get ingots, cloth, etc. if your character is low-level.

bonesmasher903

The following link has a google spreadsheet showing the inspiration amounts for each material type, both made, decon others, and IP/Ingot.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PvIVHwir2IH1ZCljjZHObQSKBzdHRtOepkUBG3Vzo-A/edit?pli=1#gid=0

Basically its best to Make/Decon bows (WW) Daggers (BS) or Belts/gloves/helms (CL) for the best IP/ingot ratio. Also, other than Tier 1 materials (Maple/Jute/Rawhide/Iron), its best to make the minimum level that the material allows.

I've found its best to decon stuff you find in the world and use your ingots to Make/Decon with a friend or Make/Decon with an Alt. Alts work the same as other people for the Decon IP #s. Never decon stuff on the same character that made it because the IP for deconning your own creations is horrendously low. If you're going the Alt route, put stuff in your bank and your Alt can access the items at the crafting station for decons.

Enchanting works the same way, but the Aspect runes determine the color level and act as multipliers for the rune level - ie a Green level 40 glyph is worth 2-3X a White and a blue level 40 glyph is worth like 4-5X the same glyph in White. Again, never decon your own creations for IP.

Alchemy/Provisioning work off creation and are based on the level of the creation, so always make the highest level item available when trying to level.

bonesmasher903

One more thing, the IP/Ingot ratio on Tier 1 materials is so low that it is not worth making/deconning those items in my opinion. I feel that it is better to sell Iron Ingots even as low as 4g/per(vendor) because you can buy steel or higher for 6-8g/per which gives 2-5X as much IP and takes far less time.

Of course that recommendation is based on the PC market prices. if you're on PS4 or X1 you may need to see what those market prices are.

Grazzt

Nice, thanks for all the great info !!