Gedwin
11-19-2004, 07:53 PM
I figured I've never written a guide before, so I'm due to contribute back to the community that helped me so much in my EQ1 days. Tell me what you think.
Gedwin's Guide to the Outfitter
This guide will cover some of the basics you should have learned in your artisan days, but might not have, as well as some of the new obstacles you must hurdle now that you're ready to narrow the scope of what you can make in exchange for higher quality items. Please keep in mind this was written from the perspective of a Qeynos character, so there is some holes when it comes to the evil side.
Becoming an Outfitter
Once you have 100% xp in level 9 artisan, the game will tell you you need to complete your quest to pick a general class before you can progress. In Qeynos talk to Alfred Ironforge in the harbors. He's in the back right corner of the building near the construction on the docks. All you have to do is hail him and say you wish to be an outfitter. He'll go over the class description with you and confirm that this is what you want to be. Click yes and you're an outfitter. I know that after this I didn't actually ting 10, and had to do one more combine first.
Materials
As an outfitter, your main materials of choice will be iron, burlap, and tanned leather. All of these materials can be found in either Antonica (for the goodie goodies) or the Commanlands (for you naughty naughties). You must have a skill of 40 in the respective harvesting ability to collect from these nodes. Also, hides can be gathered by killing animals, and you can get a little xp along the way. Mine ore for iron, tubers (roots) for the burlap, and critter dens for the hides. If you don't have a skill of 40, you need to go back to some of the lower areas and harvest more to get your skill up. This can be a long a tedious process, but worth it in the end.
Also, though you might not need it all, it is wise to harvest everything you come across. You might not need the materials personally, but crafters and scholars may need them for components you need from them later.
Societies
By now you should have been a member of a wholesaler society for a while and know how they work. However, to get your level 10+ books, you have to join an outfitter society. There is typically an outfitter society in any of the starting city zones. Go back to your hometown and join up. When this happens you will no longer be a member of the wholesaler society, but currently changing your allegiance is quick and easy and you can get back in with little trouble.
Society Quests
Also, now you can get quest from your new society. These are not the simple collect quests from your wholesaler society, but rather actual crafting quests. To get one of these quests, just talk to the guy behind the counter as soon as you zone in to the tradeskill instance. They will ask you to make 10 shaped (or other name for second level of success) items of some kind. When you are crafting these items, you must make the quality level they ask for. No more and no less. Turn these in for a fair amount of coin, some faction, and xp for the society. In theory (we haven't actually seen it yet) once they society raises in level they will be able to sell more items you need. For now though, you're going to need friends.
Tradeskillers trade? Inconceivable!
Now that you have your level 10 books and some tier 2 resources, you probably want to jump in and start crafting stuff. So you take your iron ore to the forge and go to refine it when you see you're missing eolith temper. No problem... I'll just run to the chemistry table and make some! Not so fast little buck-a-roo. You can no longer make all the materials needed for your craft by yourself. Now you need tempers, washes, and small metal things from scholars and wooden sticks and burlap patterns from craftsmen. But you are not shafted, as they too need things from you. Iron bars, sheets, and straps of leather will be your bartering tools... not to mention those other raw materials I told you to save that you don't actually use yourself. Now you can bug your guildies and friends to make this stuff for you because it isn't as much of a hassle since you're providing the materials yourself. Also, if you don't know any scholars or craftsmen, check the different chat channels (such as <town>_traders) and see if anyone there needs to swap some stuff. Or, if all else fails, make an alt and use the shared bank.
Crafting and Counters
Alright, you've got your materials from the other classes you need, and you're ready to actually try to make some stuff. First, though, you should know how to do counters. While you should have picked up this bit of knowledge in your artisan days, a refresher never hurts.... white hot iron... it hurts.
You may have noticed when crafting little icons appearing with funny sounding messages. You might also have noticed when you open your knowledge book a tradeskill tab. They're connected, I promise. You have 3 skills for each area of crafting there is, PLUS you got an additional 3 skills each for your outfitter subclass categories. This means you have 6 skills for tailoring, 6 skills for weapon smithing, etc. It is HIGHLY recommended you drag each of these to the hotkey bar. Personally I like one set per bar just to keep it easy. If you examine these skills, they will say they counter such and such, such and such, etc as well as having other effects.
When you see one of these funny messages come up during a combine, hit one of the now hotbuttoned skills to counter the effect. Yea, those effects are bad, and some are downright deadly. While dying at the forge is good for a laugh, you can assume you failed the combine at that point.
But these skills are good for more than just countering negative effects. They are buffs! In the description of each they have some kind of tradeoff, such as lowering durability slighty but increasing progress slightly, or something to that effect. Now lets make sure we have our terms clear:
durability - the green bar on the top of the four progress bars. If you lose too much durability, you risk making a lower quality item. If you lose all your durability, you fail the combine (eeep!).
power - That little blue bar under your health. This stuff regenerates so things that use it are typically pretty nice. Also, it regenerates faster when you've had something to drink, so make or buy some coffee/tea/jum jum juice before a long crafting session.
progress - This is the blue bar on the bottom of the progress bars. It represents how close to completing the item you are. Every time you complete a tier, that tier will become white indicating you've made the item up to this quality thus far. We like seeing a full progress bar at the end of the pristine line (usually).
By managing the trade-offs these buffs provide, it becomes much easier to make high quality items. Also frequent use of your second tier abilities help raise your crafting skills quickly, making combines even easier. Closely examine the benefits and negatives of these skills and try them out to see which you like the best, but don't forget about the others... they almost all have a time when they come in handy.
Primary Components
On any combine, you will see a primary component listed. This is the item that determines that highest potential quality of the item. If you're using a pristine blade edge on a longsword combine for example, then the longsword could be pristine if you do well on the combine. However if it was only shaped to begin with, then the best you could end up with is a shaped longsword. If you're doing a subcombine for something you know isn't going into the primary component for your final combine you can relax and just use counters as necessary and save your power for the final combine and not worry about the quality. However lower quality items yield less experience, so it might be in your best interest to try to get everything pristine.
Example Run
Lets say I want to make some armor for myself (a conjurer). I've already got my books and I see burlap slippers as an option. I have to keep my wee gnome toes warm, so I decide to make that. First, I run to antonica and start harvesting the roots I find around. I gather a bunch of tubers, and decide to go hit the loom. I see I need stroma wash for some of the subcombines, so I call up a guildy and give her some of the tubers to make the stroma wash with. Then I see I need a burlap pattern, so I call up a crafter friend and give him some tubers as well as some wood I got as a little bonus. With my remaining tubers I make my thread, yarn, cloth, and padding. While I'm doing these combines I use my dexterity (plus durability minus to progress) and knots (medium minus to power, large plus to progess) skills to help me along, aside from when I have to use counters to actually counter something. I make sure I'm full of power before trying the next combine. When I get to my final combine, the first several rounds are all critical failures, lowering my durability on the pristine level to just over a sliver of green. No problem, just stop the combine and try again, since there had been little progress and nothing had actually been made yet. Once I start it up again things go better, though for this tougher combine I throw in all three tier 2 skills at my disposal to keep the durability up anytime it drops below half on the pristine bar, and a little while later my pristine boots are done.
I hope this guide helps, and feel free to put feedback/suggestions/point out errors. Just send a tell to Gedwin on Guk.
Gedwin's Guide to the Outfitter
This guide will cover some of the basics you should have learned in your artisan days, but might not have, as well as some of the new obstacles you must hurdle now that you're ready to narrow the scope of what you can make in exchange for higher quality items. Please keep in mind this was written from the perspective of a Qeynos character, so there is some holes when it comes to the evil side.
Becoming an Outfitter
Once you have 100% xp in level 9 artisan, the game will tell you you need to complete your quest to pick a general class before you can progress. In Qeynos talk to Alfred Ironforge in the harbors. He's in the back right corner of the building near the construction on the docks. All you have to do is hail him and say you wish to be an outfitter. He'll go over the class description with you and confirm that this is what you want to be. Click yes and you're an outfitter. I know that after this I didn't actually ting 10, and had to do one more combine first.
Materials
As an outfitter, your main materials of choice will be iron, burlap, and tanned leather. All of these materials can be found in either Antonica (for the goodie goodies) or the Commanlands (for you naughty naughties). You must have a skill of 40 in the respective harvesting ability to collect from these nodes. Also, hides can be gathered by killing animals, and you can get a little xp along the way. Mine ore for iron, tubers (roots) for the burlap, and critter dens for the hides. If you don't have a skill of 40, you need to go back to some of the lower areas and harvest more to get your skill up. This can be a long a tedious process, but worth it in the end.
Also, though you might not need it all, it is wise to harvest everything you come across. You might not need the materials personally, but crafters and scholars may need them for components you need from them later.
Societies
By now you should have been a member of a wholesaler society for a while and know how they work. However, to get your level 10+ books, you have to join an outfitter society. There is typically an outfitter society in any of the starting city zones. Go back to your hometown and join up. When this happens you will no longer be a member of the wholesaler society, but currently changing your allegiance is quick and easy and you can get back in with little trouble.
Society Quests
Also, now you can get quest from your new society. These are not the simple collect quests from your wholesaler society, but rather actual crafting quests. To get one of these quests, just talk to the guy behind the counter as soon as you zone in to the tradeskill instance. They will ask you to make 10 shaped (or other name for second level of success) items of some kind. When you are crafting these items, you must make the quality level they ask for. No more and no less. Turn these in for a fair amount of coin, some faction, and xp for the society. In theory (we haven't actually seen it yet) once they society raises in level they will be able to sell more items you need. For now though, you're going to need friends.
Tradeskillers trade? Inconceivable!
Now that you have your level 10 books and some tier 2 resources, you probably want to jump in and start crafting stuff. So you take your iron ore to the forge and go to refine it when you see you're missing eolith temper. No problem... I'll just run to the chemistry table and make some! Not so fast little buck-a-roo. You can no longer make all the materials needed for your craft by yourself. Now you need tempers, washes, and small metal things from scholars and wooden sticks and burlap patterns from craftsmen. But you are not shafted, as they too need things from you. Iron bars, sheets, and straps of leather will be your bartering tools... not to mention those other raw materials I told you to save that you don't actually use yourself. Now you can bug your guildies and friends to make this stuff for you because it isn't as much of a hassle since you're providing the materials yourself. Also, if you don't know any scholars or craftsmen, check the different chat channels (such as <town>_traders) and see if anyone there needs to swap some stuff. Or, if all else fails, make an alt and use the shared bank.
Crafting and Counters
Alright, you've got your materials from the other classes you need, and you're ready to actually try to make some stuff. First, though, you should know how to do counters. While you should have picked up this bit of knowledge in your artisan days, a refresher never hurts.... white hot iron... it hurts.
You may have noticed when crafting little icons appearing with funny sounding messages. You might also have noticed when you open your knowledge book a tradeskill tab. They're connected, I promise. You have 3 skills for each area of crafting there is, PLUS you got an additional 3 skills each for your outfitter subclass categories. This means you have 6 skills for tailoring, 6 skills for weapon smithing, etc. It is HIGHLY recommended you drag each of these to the hotkey bar. Personally I like one set per bar just to keep it easy. If you examine these skills, they will say they counter such and such, such and such, etc as well as having other effects.
When you see one of these funny messages come up during a combine, hit one of the now hotbuttoned skills to counter the effect. Yea, those effects are bad, and some are downright deadly. While dying at the forge is good for a laugh, you can assume you failed the combine at that point.
But these skills are good for more than just countering negative effects. They are buffs! In the description of each they have some kind of tradeoff, such as lowering durability slighty but increasing progress slightly, or something to that effect. Now lets make sure we have our terms clear:
durability - the green bar on the top of the four progress bars. If you lose too much durability, you risk making a lower quality item. If you lose all your durability, you fail the combine (eeep!).
power - That little blue bar under your health. This stuff regenerates so things that use it are typically pretty nice. Also, it regenerates faster when you've had something to drink, so make or buy some coffee/tea/jum jum juice before a long crafting session.
progress - This is the blue bar on the bottom of the progress bars. It represents how close to completing the item you are. Every time you complete a tier, that tier will become white indicating you've made the item up to this quality thus far. We like seeing a full progress bar at the end of the pristine line (usually).
By managing the trade-offs these buffs provide, it becomes much easier to make high quality items. Also frequent use of your second tier abilities help raise your crafting skills quickly, making combines even easier. Closely examine the benefits and negatives of these skills and try them out to see which you like the best, but don't forget about the others... they almost all have a time when they come in handy.
Primary Components
On any combine, you will see a primary component listed. This is the item that determines that highest potential quality of the item. If you're using a pristine blade edge on a longsword combine for example, then the longsword could be pristine if you do well on the combine. However if it was only shaped to begin with, then the best you could end up with is a shaped longsword. If you're doing a subcombine for something you know isn't going into the primary component for your final combine you can relax and just use counters as necessary and save your power for the final combine and not worry about the quality. However lower quality items yield less experience, so it might be in your best interest to try to get everything pristine.
Example Run
Lets say I want to make some armor for myself (a conjurer). I've already got my books and I see burlap slippers as an option. I have to keep my wee gnome toes warm, so I decide to make that. First, I run to antonica and start harvesting the roots I find around. I gather a bunch of tubers, and decide to go hit the loom. I see I need stroma wash for some of the subcombines, so I call up a guildy and give her some of the tubers to make the stroma wash with. Then I see I need a burlap pattern, so I call up a crafter friend and give him some tubers as well as some wood I got as a little bonus. With my remaining tubers I make my thread, yarn, cloth, and padding. While I'm doing these combines I use my dexterity (plus durability minus to progress) and knots (medium minus to power, large plus to progess) skills to help me along, aside from when I have to use counters to actually counter something. I make sure I'm full of power before trying the next combine. When I get to my final combine, the first several rounds are all critical failures, lowering my durability on the pristine level to just over a sliver of green. No problem, just stop the combine and try again, since there had been little progress and nothing had actually been made yet. Once I start it up again things go better, though for this tougher combine I throw in all three tier 2 skills at my disposal to keep the durability up anytime it drops below half on the pristine bar, and a little while later my pristine boots are done.
I hope this guide helps, and feel free to put feedback/suggestions/point out errors. Just send a tell to Gedwin on Guk.