Should I have separate characters do Armor/Weapons, and Cloth/Leather?

Furiant · December 2015

I've just returned to the game after a long time.

Looking toward end game, if I want to be able to craft everything in Armor, Weapons, Cloth, and Leather, should I use separate characters for each, or is it possible to have one Clothier and one Blacksmith? I seem to remember there being some Mastery thing that would make you choose at some point, and I'm worried about being locked out of advanced stuff in any one line.

Ravalox · December 2015

You can put all crafting on one character or split it up with no penalties. I have split up my crafting on two characters (one - Blacksmith, Wood, and Cloth, and the other Enchanting, Alchemy, and Provisioning)

Though I do have provisioning maxed on all characters; I feel each character should be able to create food in the field if need be.

You can master all on the one character, the only impact is the use of the skill points.

SpAEkus · December 2015

All crafts on one character

All crafts can be crafted by one character - no swapping characters, bags, or bank to craft an entire set or specific trait-style-material
Level only One Character to reach the highest material zones for harvesting or feeding Alts decon items.
One character can have the maximum decon passives and get the best returns on all decon
RESEARCH Do you want to do the entire trait research on one character one time, or have to research an entire set of traits on several characters across several materials across several pieces of a set? Remember a crafter has to know ALL the traits on each piece to craft a single piece of a mulit-trait set.
One high level character main-crafter can feed all the highest materials to Alt characters for hirelings.

Different crafts on different characters

You have to switch to each separate crafter for yourself and others
Each crafter has to learn ALL the traits for that craft and on multiple items to make one set on that crafter
You need to level each separate crafter to get enough skill points to maximize the crafts on that character
Multiple characters with craft skills can contribute hirelings and craft-swap-decon efforts at low levels, but trust me, the itch to get max hirelings on all of them is strong.

Furiant · December 2015

Thanks so much for the replies. I was mainly worried that at some point in (say) Blacksmithing, I'd be required to choose to specialize in weapons or armor, and then I'd need to roll another blacksmith to specialize in the other. That would mean I'd wasted research in one category or the other.

I think to simplify things I'll just go with one character for each craft.

Cadelay · December 2015

You really should stay with all crafts on one character because of motifs. You will never be able to afford all the expensive/rare motifs across all of your crafting toons.

Just farm up those skill points, and make a pure crafter toon. My main is my crafter and I have plenty of skill points left at endgame.

I think you will regret splitting up your toons for crafting.

Shadowolfs · December 2015

Torally agree with one character with all crafting skills. You don't need to put skill points on all passive skills on crafting. You can level blacksmithing, woodworking, and clothing to max without a skill. Some crafting you need to put skill points in order to level with higher materials.

driosketch · December 2015

Originally I wanted each character to be self sufficient, my main and first two alts researching traits only on the weapons and armors they used. I even taught my main some rare motifs before I settled on this set up:

One alt is the wood/clothing/blacksmith crafter who researches all 9 traits on everything plus learns all the motifs. (The only downside side is it'll be a couple months to research the 9th trait on every armor piece)

One enchanter who also holds all the runes in her bag, one cook who holds all the ingredients, and likewise for a seperate alchemist.

The equipment crafter needs to get to VR 1, but the rest can remain low levels.

NBrookus · December 2015

So if you split them, you may want to keep at least the clothing, wood and blacksmithing on a single character for the motifs.

Alchemy, enchanting and provisioning don't require motifs and your chances of getting v16 runes in Orsinium are miniscule anyway. The only real downside is not being able to pick up Lorkan's Tears in Orsinium unless you have an alt with top level in alchemy.

driosketch · December 2015

NBrookus wrote: »

So if you split them, you may want to keep at least the clothing, wood and blacksmithing on a single character for the motifs.

Alchemy, enchanting and provisioning don't require motifs and your chances of getting v16 runes in Orsinium are miniscule anyway. The only real downside is not being able to pick up Lorkan's Tears in Orsinium unless you have an alt with top level in alchemy.

Lorkan tears are not even guaranteed with max alchemy. The best place to get them is the sewer base in IC. Grab every bottle including drinks and half will be tears, regardless of level or craft points.

NBrookus · December 2015

driosketch wrote: »

NBrookus wrote: »

So if you split them, you may want to keep at least the clothing, wood and blacksmithing on a single character for the motifs.

Alchemy, enchanting and provisioning don't require motifs and your chances of getting v16 runes in Orsinium are miniscule anyway. The only real downside is not being able to pick up Lorkan's Tears in Orsinium unless you have an alt with top level in alchemy.

Lorkan tears are not even guaranteed with max alchemy. The best place to get them is the sewer base in IC. Grab every bottle including drinks and half will be tears, regardless of level or craft points.

I know, but I always seem to pick up plenty anyway in Wrothgar. Or maybe it just seems like a lot since I don't need 160 to make a potion.

WhiteCoatSyndrome · December 2015

NBrookus wrote: »

So if you split them, you may want to keep at least the clothing, wood and blacksmithing on a single character for the motifs.

Alchemy, enchanting and provisioning don't require motifs and your chances of getting v16 runes in Orsinium are miniscule anyway. The only real downside is not being able to pick up Lorkan's Tears in Orsinium unless you have an alt with top level in alchemy.

+1 This.

I will note my main is maxed out in all crafts and she still runs around with 40+ skill points. But I will note I also do EVERYTHING with her, so some of those are from PvP, Pledges, Caldwell's Gold/Silver, and if you're doing great swaths of that with separate characters you might have less to play around with.

MeisterGrilla · December 2015

I'm going to chime in here, as I've been doing this a while.

Personally, I've a NB dedicated to resource farming, weps/armor, and enchanting. Stamnia/stealth/speed boosting/cloaking makes for effective farming and rapid travel while avoiding being killed.

Meanwhile, I have a partner who's similarly vested, and deals only in food/alchemy. What this does mean, is the skill cost is split, and the resource gain is doubled... Plus i get potions, motifs, food, and they get gear, recipies, glyphs. Win win for both players and the cost of buying them through traders or "on the street" is drasticly reduced or negated.

It doesn't save much time for research past 6+ traits, but, at the same time, your partner can also research the last two for you... Frees up used inventory and gets it solidified in a shorter period of time while your slots free up.

There's other mildly important bits involved, but, these are the main ones.

Mansome · December 2015

You can definitely do it on one character. Just make sure you look for skyshards and do the quests that give skill points as well as dungeons that do this. If you do that you should have more than enough points to get you what you need.

bryanhaas · December 2015

Furiant wrote: »

I've just returned to the game after a long time.

Looking toward end game, if I want to be able to craft everything in Armor, Weapons, Cloth, and Leather, should I use separate characters for each, or is it possible to have one Clothier and one Blacksmith? I seem to remember there being some Mastery thing that would make you choose at some point, and I'm worried about being locked out of advanced stuff in any one line.

By end game you should have enough skill points to take all the crafting and all the passives.

Young_Archiebold · December 2015

I have my main doing BS, CL, WW, EN, and Pro, I have an alt that does Pro and Alc... Works quite well...

Furiant · December 2015

Thanks again for all the answers, but to be clear: I was asking if there was a point at which I would be required to specialize in some way - say, as a Weaponsmith or an Armorer, and thereby not be able to make items in the specialization I didn't take. So, if I took Armorer, I'd need a second character to take Weaponsmith in order to make all possible items. Not for lack of skill points, but because you could only specialize in one or the other. Some games work that way, and I somehow got the impression that it was a factor here.

I'm guessing this isn't the case.

Ravalox · December 2015

No, it's not the case.