Given the fact my class is a platemail-wearing tank class, I decided to turn Armourer. The tradeskill system works how the EQ class system worked originally, in that you can make stuff from any tradeskill at level 1-9, then you first choose one of three classes at level 10 to pursue before eventually specialising down into one of three sub-classes of that class at 20. At 10, I went for Outfitter, who make tailored armour as well as platemail, and at 20 I became the Armourer I intended. There are a total of 9 tradeskills, which cover pretty much any in-game item you might want to make between them. The more unusual skills involve making furtniture for the in-game housing, or making food (which is actually quite lucrative, as everyone needs to eat and the good food gives major benefits over standard vendor stuff).
This is a forge. Used for weaponsmithing, armour-making and disposing of unwanted pets/children.
Now, to actually tradeskill, you have to go to the correct tradeskill machine - in my case a forge - and then select what item you want to make. Successfully producing the item then gives you tradeskill exp, providing the recipe is sufficiently close to your tradeskill level, which will eventually lead you to level up. Each item needs a recipe, the basic ones brought from the tradeskill trainer with new ones each level. They also need the materials, which are harvested in the world of Norrath. There are four harvesting skills, with two different types of resource node for each. Armouring primarily uses ore from Mining, but it also uses furs from Trapping and roots from Gathering. Each node has about 5 different items that you can harvest, probably only about half of which will be of any use to you, the rest used in different professions. The best items, however, use rare harvests - items that are worth an awful lots and (as the name suggests) are only found very rarely. Sadly, new players often don't realise the value of these items and frequently destroy them to make room for conventional loot - at level 25, I destroyed a rare harvest worth about 25 gold, more than I had paid for all of the armour I was then wearing.
In the foreground you see two resource nodes. In the background you can see the abandoned home of a necromancer, complete with fiery blue mood lighting. Legend says he left after new laws were passed cracking down on CO2 emissions from flaming skulls.
The other bonus you gain from harvesting is collectibles, which appear as small golden orbs on the ground, marked with a '?'. If you harvest them, you get a collectible item that you can put in your collections. Once you complete a collection, you can hand it in for Achievement exp and usually a coin and item reward. There are a lot of collections, some of them very large, so collecting is quite a good fun pursuit - especially as the items usually sell quite well on the broker if you've got doubles. The collection system is a nice little addition to the game, in my opinion.
And here we have a collectible item. Gotta catch em 'all (much like Pokemon, or STDs).
Onto actual tradeskilling, where I'm going to talk about how it will work in the next patch. Basically, to create the item I gather the materials and make sure I've learned the recipe, then go to the Forge and start work. I get a screen that shows four different levels, with a blue bar representing progress that starts empty, and a green bar representing item durability that starts full. The idea is to fill the blue bar up before the green bar drops below the 75% mark, and if you do so you get the item. If not, you lose some of the materials (depending on how badly you did) and start all over again. Fairly regularly a complication will crop up and you have to use one of your three tradeskill abilities to correct it, or risk losing a substantial whack of durability. The three tradeskill abilities can also be used when not countering complications to increase durability or progress, but at the cost of power (mana) - and if you run out of power you won't be able to counter any complications that might occur, which is inevitably bad news. If that sounds like a tricky balancing act, it's not particularly hard in reality. You just press the right button to counter and spam the other buttons when you feel your durability is dropping; the rest seems dictated largely by luck. It's certainly an involved crafting system that can make some very good items, but I really don't find it as interesting as adventuring. Certainly, though, it's nice to have the option there (and it's nice to be able to outfit yourself, as well as making a tidy profit on the broker if you're willing to put the hours in).
This may look smithing, but in fact I am in the process of setting alight the small fairy beside me. Evil gotta do what evil gotta do.
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