What you guys do ?

[euridice]

EQTraders is a wonderful site, I rarely come nowadays but it was a very useful source of information when I begun tradeskilling, it's still a very handy place to ask for precision at times.

The activity here seems to decline, and I guess it's normal, proportionnal to the declining population in EQ, proportionnal to the number of Master Artisan around Norrath.

As a tradeskiller, I had a very good time enjoying all what SoE developped for us.
It has been a long path to reach the max, and the journey has been fun as well completing the different quests.

Now I feel bored, the 1 year expansion can't feed the need for tradeskillers, SoD implemented nice additions, but **** it takes 2 months for top guilds to complete the expansion, it takes about the same to complete the tradeskill stuff.

This isn't a rant but I'm pretty sure a number of longtime players here feel the same, nothing more to do, except leveling an alt here and there.

So what you guys do ?

[Zolina]

Board activity generally picks up when there's something complex or awesome going on (like Eron's quest from last year, I think that thread went on for 20 pages or more). There hasn't been as much stuff to discuss this expansion as the last. And the lower server populations are undoubtedly playing a role too. I'm disappointed in that, this expansion has been a very good one, in my opinion.

[Roanne]

My disappointments are primarily in the lack of attention to detail that are characteristic of new tradeskill develops.

We still dont have working AC and ATK stats on food and drink from more than a year ago, the jewelery making overhaul is a shadow of what it should have been because untested mechanics caused problems, cultural armor is dead as the only option left to fix a lack of vision letting it get out of control, and the addition of TSS tomes and rk. II spells to spell research is still incomplete with dozens of missing recipes (not just undiscovered recipes) to name a few.

I realize tradeskills are a complex, poorly organized system that can be difficult to maintain and no one expects perfection all the time. However, when the obvious effects of hurried development work go unaddressed for months turning to years because of "get it done fast and move on to the next gimmick" style development a mediocre job the first time usually means mediocrity for a very long time.

Tradeskills just arent a priority in the game at large. Most players could care less about them because they require slow, methodical research to keep up with, patience and time to develop, and usually result subpar rewards. Add consistently buggy systems and products to the mix and its not worth the trouble to someone with average play time available. Some players (most of us here?) see the accomplishment of a difficult goal as its own reward, but the majority of players just aren't going to bother.

[MareeTP]

I think at least part of the decline in actual numbers of tradeskillers is due to the easy availability of plat in the game. Why go through the time, cost and trouble of skilling up to make your own gear when you can purchase large amounts of plat relatively inexpensively and just buy it in the bazaar.

This doesn't necessarily equate to less tradeskilled items. Just fewer new people willing to put the time into skill up paths.

As far as armor pieces go, the new dropped gear containing the foci has more than balanced the market for tradeskilled pieces.

All in all, while Im sure the declining population has played a part in this, it isn't the sole reason for the declining tradeskilling population. Changes in priorities and player focus in the game, improved ease of playing the game itself and the ability to easily convert real life money to in game monies seems to me to be the biggest part of the decline.

Tradeskilling is painstaking and more costly than most players actually need to progress their characters and, for good or bad, the game is moving away from painstaking, costly endeavors. It's a natural process, even if some of us would rather not see it go that way.

Speaking as a long time player myself, I am leveling alts, true. But I continue to progress my main character through raiding, AAs and quests, as my primary focus. Tradeskilling is just a complementary aspect of that, not my sole focus. I primarily tradeskill for the benefit of my own characters and guildmembers at this point, which is satisfying and a nice balance to just raiding and experience.

[Gendor]

I am no where near being done with everything or seen everything but have only been playing a year so ?? :0 I can't help you

[Shadrok]

Nowhere near done

That's the problme with zerging to the newest and the brightest ...

I've been playing for 10 years. My 2 boxed mains are only now 79. I haven't beaten the top mobs beyond Luclin. Neither of my mains has maxed tradeskills; fletching doesn't do much for me, so I haven't pushed hard on it. I have lots of places left to explore.

However, I've been to places and done quests that most 85s haven't touched. If you're peak level in top raid gear, you won't want to do quests for items that won't help or visit zones that yield no experience.

So if you didn't finish Prophecy of Ro ... you never will. Someday, heh, I will. It helps that I'm in a raiding alliance of like minded people. On weekends we visit areas that the top-level players have left behind.

And I still tradekill like crazy. I don't need hand-made backpacks, but they still sell, so someone does. So do my stock of 61-65 spells, my Kaladim Constitutionals and Misty Thicket Picnic Baskets. I enjoy making things that other players need.

[Gorse]

That's the problme with zerging to the newest and the brightest ...

I've been playing for 10 years. My 2 boxed mains are only now 79. I haven't beaten the top mobs beyond Luclin. Neither of my mains has maxed tradeskills; fletching doesn't do much for me, so I haven't pushed hard on it. I have lots of places left to explore.

However, I've been to places and done quests that most 85s haven't touched. If you're peak level in top raid gear, you won't want to do quests for items that won't help or visit zones that yield no experience.

So if you didn't finish Prophecy of Ro ... you never will. Someday, heh, I will. It helps that I'm in a raiding alliance of like minded people. On weekends we visit areas that the top-level players have left behind.

And I still tradekill like crazy. I don't need hand-made backpacks, but they still sell, so someone does. So do my stock of 61-65 spells, my Kaladim Constitutionals and Misty Thicket Picnic Baskets. I enjoy making things that other players need.

Well said. I'm in a similar boat, except I have progressed a little farther, through a similar alliance.

The repeated blanket statements about broken tradeskills is really uncalled for. There are reasons why they everything in the tradeskill world is not perfect, which can be mostly attributed to lack of manpower to do the work. But some people still feel it will be productive to come here and belittle the folks making an effort to produce quality items for players.

There are plenty of rewards for people who do tradeskills, but as always else some people will complain about anything. It's not enought to get new systems and access to spells and gear that may otherwise be unattainable, they want to pick the nits on a fraction of a percent of items which have an issue, either because of code or a number being entered wrong.

Sadly, the happy players are not vocal ones, so far too often all the is heard is the negativity. I think it has a lot to do with how people view things. Some of us are happy about tradeskills and enjoy them. We accept the way things are and take pride in the things we can do, verses lamenting over what we cannot.

Tradeskills are not broken and certainly not underpowered. They provide a great deal of fun and yield results for the effort, while still giving the capability to do it all solo.


Gorse

[Luvimt]

I still enjoy making stuff - made some ethereal metal sheets and elegant axe and aug for guildies and some timeless drink for myself in the last few days. I still obtain most of my money for songs from selling TS stuff (although feel very guilty leaving a trader on all night so only tend to open shop 1/week).

It is a shame that no-one wants cultural armour anymore and that the AC and Atk still don't work on food and drinks but overall I am happy with whats out there TS-wise.

[menssia01]

I guess for myself it is coming up 9 years since I began EQ (give or take time taken off) but I still find myself doing things I did all those years ago...
I merchant farm (and yes, it is still possible). I decided to level up another toon to see how fast I could get to 300 in all compared to my old character (OMG it was so much faster but research as a rogue gnome is killing me $ wise).

But at the end of the day, I think most of us still make things for the fun of it, and not really to sell at a profit as we mostly have other means to get $ for that.
It's nice after that many years that you can find something marked as 'usable in tradeskills' that you have never seen or used before and make something from it (with the help of EQtraders)

[Zaltak]

Yea I still make PoP armor! for tribute GoD knows why the stuff is so rare:-(
I made a stormweave robe yesterday for some insane reason .LOL
P.S. for research skill ups if you can find somebody to summon essenses for you.You can use the binding powders to make clicky scrolls for skill ups.

[Vymdraven]

As another old player, I found my happiness in starting over as a beasty. Level 55 now, with 150 aa (none of it from pl'ing), and almost expert artisan (pottery 216 ug), with brewing / jewelry at 300.

You want a challenge, try doing all the pre-EP content at 55 with other peps of similar level. I suppose I could level to 85, grind a few thousand aa's and go raid again, but this is too much fun. Like today I spent it working on my coldain ring quest (on 8th ring now) and farming for chunks of condensed shadow in AR. Tomorrow working on aid grimmel some more.

I've been insulted countless times for starting over, but to me this is a game, I do what I do because I enjoy it.