How to effect durability on weaponry skills?

[StannisTVH]

Ok, so I am a levl 15 outfitter now, with an eventual goal of either weaponry or armor. However, I have not paid much attention to ether of these paths as I have been busy making bags for my guild.

So last night, I worked my butt off and maxed my weaponry and armor skills. One thing I found disturbing. I could not for the life of me make pristine items. What are the breakdowns on the buffs? When making backpacks and other leather items (hilts and stuff) I had buffs that I could apply to add durability.

Yes I am using my teir 2 buffs in weaponry, yet it seems like none of my weaponry buffs add more then +5 durability, which leaves me at a -5 duraility on a normal round. Am I missing a combo that will give me a net positive increas in durability? Or do you just have to live with -5 durability each normal round?

I am basing my expectations off of making backpacks. Where I could net +durability every round if needed. Is there a means to do this with weaponry?

Any help would be appreciated.

To answer the basic questions:
Yes I am using my level 2 weapon buffs.
Yes my skills are maxed (78/78 in weaponry, I think) either way yes they are maxed.
Yes I know the difference between a normal round, bad round etc.
Yes I did a search, used weaponry and skills in the search box.

[Herculez]

There are 2 buffs for weaponry to use. The one your using to raise durability 5 at a cost of power, and another that raises chance of success for a cost of power. Avoid using the buff that raises durability at a large reduction in progress, the crafting progress will take so much longer that your much more likely to get critical fails. -5 durability is the best you can hope for on a normal tick, using the + success buff will give you a good chance at a critical success where you gain durability, so those 2 buffs are your best bet. Weaponry is by far the hardest of the 3 outfitter skills to gain a pristine success on. As to armor making, use the buff that raises durability for a cost of chance of success, and the one that does the same for the cost of power ( cant remember their names, the one with a picture of a hammer striking a sheet isnt one of em ). Use those 2 buffs until you gain the first level of quality, then just use the one that costs success. Using them together will get you a fair amount of +20-30 durability rounds and allow you to gain a buffer for when you start using just the one without a power cost. Using that combo, i have been able to achieve pristine results on armor combos that were yellow by 2-3 levels.

[StannisTVH]

Thank for the information. I just wanted to make sure I was not going nuts. So far I was using the +durability and the +success skills. I guess I will keep on using them.

[Herculez]

Yeah, there not much you can do for weapons. I have horrible success making pristine weapons that are below my skill level, but can make pristine iron chainmail that was above my skill level at the time. Seems like the only thing you can do is become a weapon smith, myself im doing armor as it seems to be the better seller.

[Quiq]

How about we get some names to go with those buffs? :)

I'm having the same problem in trying to turn out pristine weapons. I've got light armoring down to a science (making pristine combines pretty much 100% of the time), but would seriously like to accomplish the same with weapons.

This looks like a serious crafting balance issue here. It looks like weaponsmithing is the only craft you can't majorly impact durability on. I personally am willing to sacrifice time (progress) in favor of a better finished product... and we should have that option.

Patience should be rewarded!

There are 2 buffs for weaponry to use. The one your using to raise durability 5 at a cost of power, and another that raises chance of success for a cost of power. Avoid using the buff that raises durability at a large reduction in progress, the crafting progress will take so much longer that your much more likely to get critical fails. -5 durability is the best you can hope for on a normal tick, using the + success buff will give you a good chance at a critical success where you gain durability, so those 2 buffs are your best bet. Weaponry is by far the hardest of the 3 outfitter skills to gain a pristine success on. As to armor making, use the buff that raises durability for a cost of chance of success, and the one that does the same for the cost of power ( cant remember their names, the one with a picture of a hammer striking a sheet isnt one of em ). Use those 2 buffs until you gain the first level of quality, then just use the one that costs success. Using them together will get you a fair amount of +20-30 durability rounds and allow you to gain a buffer for when you start using just the one without a power cost. Using that combo, i have been able to achieve pristine results on armor combos that were yellow by 2-3 levels.

[Herculez]

I have tried using the buff that reduces progress, and it is a path to failure. It doubles/triples the time it would take to make the combo, and even with capped metalworking skill you are going to get so many more critical fails in this time period simply because your giving it more chances to happen. I have made a few pristine weapons, but no more or less by using all 3 or just the 2 i mentioned above. And im sorry about the names, i dont minimize out the game to post so i dont know what they are till i log in and am pretty forgetful when it comes to writting things down to edit later.

[Heatmizer]

And im sorry about the names, i dont minimize out the game to post so i dont know what they are till i log in and am pretty forgetful when it comes to writting things down to edit later.

I'm still mostly a newb with this stuff, but I think the buffs Herculez is referring to are:

Indurate: +small durability -small power
Strengthening: +small success -small power

The other buff in this line is:

Vitrify: +small durability -large progress

This is the line of buffs I'm using trying to raise my metal working and armoring skills, and for the most part following Herculez' advice seems to be helping my combines. I say for the most part because it's obvious that the process is not purely scientific when no matter what the game just decides that the current combine just isn't going to happen no matter what you do :(

At this time I'm just making all my raw iron into iron bars and then into iron rings in the eventual hope of making myself some armor. Not having gotten to the point of armor this buff line may not apply. It was however the same buff line I used to make a few weapons. And ya, pristine weapons are still a ways off for me :(

One other thing to mention - I have noticed that if my quality really seems to be plunging that I can occasionally save a pristine item by chain casting Indurate and Strengthening together. No guarantees, but it's saved me from zero durability on a pristine item with no progress on that tier to a pristine item in the end. But watch your power.