Released today was the Riders of Rohan Developer Diary for crafting by Dina “Ayvan” Monas. The new tier of crafting, titled Eastemnet, “will retain many of the positive changes introduced in Rise of Isengard and will hopefully add a couple of new ones.” And with that we’ll see what’s in store for those of us who find ourselves too often tied to the crafting stations inside LOTRO.
Resources
- There will still be normal and rich versions of all notes
- Resources will still be able to be processed into low, medium, and higher quality ingredients
- Rare items will still be able to be broken down into optional or higher quality ingredients
One of the new features being added for crafting is that new “processing” recipes will be introduced to “assist non-gathering professions in leveling up their craft.”
Metal, Wood and Leather Shaving recipes are being auto-granted to Jewellers, Tailors, Metalsmiths, Weaponsmiths and Woodworkers. Cooks will still retain their auto-granted ingredient recipes. The new processing recipes allow the above professions to level up their craft without having to waste enormous amounts of resources. Instead, lower quality ingredients can be turned into the appropriate shavings and the shavings can then be turned back into the low quality ingredient. Once you are able to crit, it is possible to get a return equal to the amount of resources you put in.
I find this to be an interesting turn of events in the crafting experience. It is a unique way for Turbine to offer crafters an alternative path to level up crafting professions at the risk of losing resources. I’m not sure I’ll be taking advantage of this opportunity on a normal basis, but it’s an interesting enough that it will probably warrant some tinkering on my behalf.
Another change has been made to resource nodes across the world. Now all nodes will have a chance to drop the “rare-crafting ingredient” used in their respective tiers. The example given in the diary is that players will have a chance of obtaining an Adamant shard from Dwarf-iron and Platinum deposits, Leberthron branches, and Forgotten Texts. I for one think that this is a brilliant change and I welcome it with open arms.
Armor Sets
The new Eastemnet tier will now contain two full sets of armor. One will be a level 80 set and another will be a level 85 set. In return, very few recipes will be auto-granted and will need to be loctated via treasure and reputation. Now while I’m not a big fan of the reputation-gating of recipes, I am a big fan of there being two complete sets of armor. So thank you Turbine for putting those in.
Crafting Resource Instances
For those of you who took advantage of the resource (aka crafting) instances in Moria and loved them (like I did), you’ll be pleased to know that there are a new set of instances being released with Rohan that can be “run on a daily basis.”
In addition to extra crafting materials, the quests and barter rewards associated with these instances will also provide legendary item support, much like the legendary item instances done for Moria and Dunland. Players will be able to acquire their Compendium, Volume IV after completing one of the quests bestowed.
I can tell you right now I will be running these. I have always been a fan of the resource and legendary item instances in the game since they are usually short and provide a good reward.
Crafted Relics
New crafted relics are also being released with the expansion. It appears that there will be crafted relics for “regular play and mounted combat”. And for those of us who are tanks, we will also be finally getting some crafted relics that supply defensive bonuses. Let me say that it’s about dang time! However, you will need to obtain “Grand Master of the Guild” in order to access “the best” relics.
Craft Guilds
Much like Isengard, there will be a new rank of Crafting Guild Reputation released with Rohan. There will be new guild recipes, and guild reputation item recipes released as well. So really nothing new here, but I would advise that players start using their existing reputation item recipes right now to obtain the new reputation as soon as possible.
Conclusion
So after reading through the diary a couple of times, I don’t really see any downsides coming with crafting in Riders of Rohan. I think that the only thing that might be a bit “tough” to obtain will be the higher level recipes, but that’s what the Auction House is for, right? I’m still not hot on the idea of reputation gated recipes since I like to have my alts to have every single recipe known to Race of Man, but I’ll either have to live with it or get those alts up to par! What do you think?
August 29, 2012 at 7:09 pm
“It is a unique way for Turbine to offer crafters an alternative path to level up crafting professions at the risk of losing resources. I’m not sure I’ll be taking advantage of this opportunity on a normal basis, but it’s an interesting enough that it will probably warrant some tinkering on my behalf.”
When you are levelling a craft, you are already “losing resources”. No risk or gamble, they are gone. I.e., as a Woodworker, crafting all those Great Clubs recipes with the intention of selling them right away to the nearest NPC vendor is a waste of resources, but necessary to level up the tier and get as much silver back as possible. Using the new “shavings” method, you earn the same (or more) crafting XP, but regain at least part of the resources (you keep all of them if you crit the recipe), and that in the end means that you use less resources to level up the crafting, which means more resources left to use for the ‘real’ crafting.
August 29, 2012 at 8:47 pm
Nice about having two full sets of crafter gear, but it will be pretty much useless for anyone who has even the inferior level 75 raid gear, the Draigoch set I guess it woudl be. The numbers as of now show a major hit to the primary stat on the crafted gear, so anyone with level 75 raid gear of any kind will have to wait to get the Hytbold armor.
August 29, 2012 at 10:19 pm
Gating recipes could be kept but maybe make a small change to them so they’re bound on account. Would maintain a certain level of gating while increasing the market for the end products.
Would love to see a crafting instance for farming for no other reason than it would make it slightly more interesting or at least closer to being on a par with the other gathering type profs. I still doubt any dev has levelled a farming character beyond the basic tiers.
Guild rep items do give a pretty decent chuck of crafting xp so people may want to hold off on crafting all they need now and make use of at least one round of each once ROR hits.
August 29, 2012 at 11:13 pm
Keeping recipes gated is a reward for people who put a lot of effort in leveling character and building rep.
Like your idea of bound to account once you buy those recipes
August 30, 2012 at 9:34 am
Yeah thats why I suggested the BoA while keeping the gating. For me rep grinding isnt always fun the first time so for multiple crafting alts they just get worse.
August 30, 2012 at 9:15 am
It takes 2 ingots to make 4 metal shavings and 4 shavings to make 1 ingot… how is that going to help anyone? Makes no sense to me.
August 30, 2012 at 12:18 pm
I don’t know the exact number of crafting XP you get from the shavings recipes, but here’s a small example with a reasonable estimate.
Starting with 16 ingots, you can either:
a) Use some basic recipe and vendor the product, let’s say burglar tricks as weaponsmith, 16 times 6 XP = 96
b) Use the shavings recipes, 8+4+2+1 uses for both ways, you’re left with 1 ingot, 15 times whatever (ingots->shavings->ingots) gives, let’s assume 4 XP for each recipe = 15+15 times 4 XP = 120 XP
You are getting more crafting XP out of the same amount of starting material, in exchange for the puny amount of silver you would get from the vendor when you dump your training pieces there.
August 30, 2012 at 9:56 am
I always max out my crafting in this game to get the good rewards, but I am just not a fan of the system overall. I wish crafting was more interesting and there was something to do aside from clicking buttons until you max out.
August 31, 2012 at 7:41 am
Not wanting to look like I’m plugging another game but the gw2 crafting system is really nice. It gives you the basic parts then leaves it up to you to figure out combinations with only a few recipes that can be bought.
I liked the way you had the interdependent profs. Meant there was the potential for a better economy of crafted parts, sadly they’re moving away from that. Good thing for low pop servers or those with less active crafters but does reduce that aspect of the games community.
September 4, 2012 at 9:58 am
I like it too. I don’t know that I want LOTRO to go in that direction per se, but at least I feel like I’m really “making” something and thinking a bit. FFXIV’s is at least semi-involving too.
LOTRO’s, to me, is click a button and then walk away while it crafts 20 of something over 5 minutes. The amount of super cool stuff I’ve made is pretty small.
August 30, 2012 at 9:41 pm
WTB mounted harvesting. *waits a week* Mounted Harvesting: 500 Turbine Points
August 30, 2012 at 11:33 pm
[quote]Instead, lower quality ingredients can be turned into the appropriate shavings and the shavings can then be turned back into the low quality ingredient. Once you are able to crit, it is possible to get a return equal to the amount of resources you put in.[/quote]
I can see what they are trying to do; reduce the wasteful grind needed in tiering up crafting, but this idea of turning A into B just to turn it back into A again exposes just how pointless this exercise is! They are making it easier but why make us do it at all? Grinding keeps people in the game longer but most crafters will just AFK-craft so this is really doesnt benefit Turbine in any way.
August 31, 2012 at 8:59 am
What about Scholars? They have the hardest time leveling out of all professions. Why don’t they get any processing recipes?
August 31, 2012 at 3:16 pm
Scholars are a gather profession and a crafting profession. They get xp for processing their harvested materials into higher quality components. A weaponsmith doesn’t; those points go to prospecting. Also, if a weaponsmith makes 100 swords to level, he ends up merching all that as trash. As a scholar, I end up leveling by making consumables (green pots, blue pots, scrolls, bowchants, fervour pots etc) that can be used by everybody, and easily given out to kin-mates (for much thanks) or sold on AH (for profit).
Scholars actually have it good.
September 2, 2012 at 10:57 am
Have Scholars on Brandywine & Dwarrowdelf and they are hampered by their access to resources that are always in the midst of mobs – no sneaking in!! At every level there is one ingredient that is rarer but essential – Faded Sindarin, Dunadain etc. My champ main as an explorer can keep other crafts supplied (incl weaponsmith part of historian) but not scholar – so having to level scholar alt normally just to gather resources!! Even then keep running out and revisiting nodes/urns etc when available (and other scholars not gathering). There are only so many pots you can make and then still have to explain why not able to supply scrolls to disgruntled kin-mates. On some servers AH is an outlet but not on Dwarrowdelf where hard to even buy resources.
P.S. Yeoman so farmer can cool
September 2, 2012 at 10:58 am
Ooops Yeoman so farmer can COOK (although she is cool in farming gear!!!)
September 4, 2012 at 9:58 am
Scholar drives me nuts because the nodes are so comparatively rare. I guess it makes some sense, but I go into a dungeon, risk my butt and then there’s only two nodes? Really?
September 2, 2012 at 12:45 am
Has anyone seen a new tier of crafting tools?
September 14, 2012 at 3:09 am
i’m looking forward to tier 9 crafting when i’ll finally be “grandmother of the guild”