EverQuest 2 Alchemy Guide
4.3. Speeding Up the Crafting Process
Once you are comfortable with using +durability buffs in this way you can deviate from this pattern somewhat and still get good results. It takes time to learn the rhythm of crafting and find out how far you can push your luck but once you do it’s this as much as anything else that will speed up your crafting rate.
Apart from all of this, another way of increasing your efficiency is to take a close look at the buffs you’re using. At the start of each tier you’ll get a new set of buffs, but it’s not always a good idea to use the highest level buff of each type that you have. Of course you want to make sure you always have easy access to one full set each of +progress and +durability buffs, but at level 20 and for each subsequent tier you’ll be given a new buff set. In general the replacement buffs will have more powerful effects than their lower- level counterparts, but they have a higher cost when used (although this isn’t always the case).
For example, compare the +durability/-progress buffs you’ll end up with at level 50 C
Conceptualize (level 10) decrease progress by 20
increase durability by 10
Conjecture (level 30) decrease progress by 10
Increase durability by 5
Right away you should be able to see that conceptualize is much more appropriate for most crafting situations C when you’re trying to hold back progress to increase durability for example, or at the start of a craft when you’re trying to build up your durability reserves. I don’t have Conjecture hotkeyed and in fact I’ve rarely used it, as there are no situations where Conceptualize won’t do as good as or a better job. It is so much easier to increase progress than it is to increase durability that the extra progress loss you get when using Conceptualize isn’t really a problem.
EverQuest 2 Alchemy Guide
4.2. Increasing Your Pristine Rate
As I’ve just explained, taking care to minimize the size of your power pool and using crafted drink will help you greatly to increase your ability to make pristine items. There are a few buffing techniques you can use to help you even more.
One of the easiest things you can do to prevent losing pristine quality in the first place is to use your +durability buffs for a couple of rounds at the start of the crafting process. Durability of your item can build up around 100 points beyond what you see on the fourth green line so in the first 25% progress of the craft it’s a good idea to use the durability buffs to give yourself a small safety margin in case you experience heavy durability loss later on.
One of the things I do the most is holding progress back. You’ve probably noticed already that sometimes you’ll lose large chunks of durability for no apparent reason (this is called a critical failure). Sometimes there’s nothing you can do to get it back and you just have to accept a less-than-pristine quality level. But it’s always worth trying to scrape some extra durability out of that item to try and recover your pristine quality. One of the things you can do is use your +durability/-progress buff repeatedly to try and decrease the progress on your item at the same time as increasing durability. This will prevent it completing and give you some extra time to try and restore some of the lost durability. I usually start doing this if I find I am getting close to losing pristine and if I am getting close to filling the third progress bar.
For me, a typical craft will look something like this C during the first part of the process, I try to increase my durability to give myself that safety margin. When an event occurs I counter the event with the relevant +durability buff, then use the other two durability buffs afterwards. I will do this until I’ve counted about +100 in durability (you can count by watching the numbers that float above your crafting station at the end of each tick C the number on the left is durability, the number on the right is progress). Once I have it, I switch to the progress buffs, using the +progress/-power and +progress/-success each tick, but only using the +progress/-durability buff if I need to counter an event. If I start to lose too much durability I’ll start holding progress back until I can raise durability to a safe level. This does increase the time it takes to finish an item, but unless I am extremely unlucky making a high level item I always get a pristine result.
EverQuest 2 Alchemy Guide
4. The Finer Points of Crafting
Now that you’re an Alchemist, it’s a good time to go over some of the technical issues that are going to become more and more important to you as you level up. These are some of the tips and tricks that will make leveling easier, more efficient, and more profitable.
4.1. What to Wear While Crafting
Believe it or not, the best thing you can wear while crafting is nothing at all. Being able to craft efficiently and keep your pristine rate consistently high is very much dependant on how quickly you regenerate power. And funnily enough, the size of your power pool isn’t important at all.
You may have noticed that your power-consuming crafting buff doesn’t use a set amount of power, but instead uses a percentage of your total power pool. This is one of the keys to maximizing the number of times you can cast it before running out of power. The second is to make sure you always use good quality crafted drink that is appropriate for your level.
Drink regenerates power not as a percentage but by a fixed amount. This means that the smaller your power pool is, the more benefit you get from the regeneration provided by drink. Because the power-usage of crafting buffs is percentage-based you’re not disadvantaged by having a small power pool C in fact it’s completely the opposite.
So when you’re crafting, make sure you always use crafted drink, and remove any items of clothing that give you big power bonuses. If you do this you’ll find you’re able to counter and buff much more efficiently, increasing your pristine rate and reducing the time it takes you to craft a single item. Because the buff that costs power is the only one without any negative side effects (such as lowering success chance, or durability or progress) being able to use it as often as it refreshes is a big advantage when you’re crafting.
EverQuest 2 Alchemy Guide
3.5. Becoming an Alchemist
When you reach the end of level 19, you’re ready for your final class selection. Talk to Matthias Zoe in West Freeport, or Devona Ironforge in Qeynos Harbor. When you have talked to either of these people and selected Alchemist as your choice, if you’ve waited until the very end of the level you must again head back to your trade skill instance to make one more combine, just as you did when you became a Scholar.
EverQuest 2 Alchemy Guide
3.3. Leveling Ideas for New Players
The Scholar levels are the last levels where you’ll be able to make items from other crafting class recipe sets. As a Scholar you’re able to make spells and combat arts for all classes, as well as jewellery.
If you’re a new player you can save money by making your own spells, combat arts, or jewellery as part of your leveling plan. Using as many different recipes as you can is also a great way of increasing your rate of XP gain.
Unless you’re planning to push to the Alchemy level cap as quickly as possible, these levels are a good time to start looking at how the market works, and maybe try to sell a few things as well. If the level cap ASAP is your goal this probably won’t be something you’ll bother about too much; however if you want to try and make a profit along the way, it’s never too early to start thinking about what your customers want and need (see section 7.3 for advice on making money selling your goods to other players).
3.4. Maximizing Experience Gain
The most efficient way of leveling is to make items that are at or higher than your level, and to make as many first-time pristine-quality items as you can. Alchemy is one of the easiest tradeskills to level in, because with lots of combat arts, potions, and poisons, there are a lot of different recipes. In addition, pristine combines always yield more experience than crude, even without the first-time pristine bonus. While you are leveling pristine quality should always be your goal for every combine simply because you will get more experience for the money and time you spend on fuel and resources.
It is very easy to fly through the Scholar levels quickly if you’re not concerned about how much money you make or spend. With Alchemy, Jeweler, and Sage recipes and with your new durability buffs available to you, making pristine versions of recipes will get you on the way to becoming an Alchemist in no time.
EverQuest 2 Alchemy Guide
3. Leveling as a Scholar
3.1. Harvesting in Tier Two
In the new-look Commonlands rocks and roots seem to be most plentiful along the coastal cliffs and near the druid rings. When you’re harvesting in this zone be on the lookout for ? nodes as these will sometimes yield Commonlands leaves which are used in a collection quest for a 12 slot bag.
My favorite harvesting area in Antonica is the area outside Valen’s Tower. It’s quite safe and there’s a very large area to harvest in. This area also has a ? node that usually yields cracked bones (which sell quite well, often for several gold coins depending on the type of bone). Antonica also has a leaf collection quest which yields a 12 slot backpack, for which you must collect Antonican Ficus Leaves.
3.2. Using Your New Alchemy Buff Set
One of the best things about becoming a Scholar is getting your new buff set. At level 10 you are finally able to buff your durability, making it much easier to achieve pristine quality items. Getting pristine quality consistently is still quite difficult until the 30s, though, so again don’t worry too much if you find you are still having some trouble with it.
Your new durability-boosting buff set is very similar to the one that you already had. You have a buff that increases durability at the expense of progress, one that increases durability and uses power, and one that increases durability but decreases your success chance.
Working out when to use the various types of buffs is an art in itself. There are a number of different ways in which you can manipulate your buff sets to achieve specific results. See sections 4.2, 4.3, and 4.4 for tips on using your buffs to maximize your pristine rate and experience gain.
EverQuest 2 Alchemy Guide
Critical Failure
-100 Durability and -50 Progress
Failure
-50 Durability and 0 Progress
Success (normal tick)
-10 Durability and +50 Progress
Critical Success
+10 Durability and + 100 Progress
Whichever buffs you decide to use in the tick will also influence the amount of durability and progress you gain or lose or your chance of having a successful crafting round.
2.6. Becoming a Scholar
At the end of level nine, you’ll stop gaining experience, as it’s time to choose your sub- class and get on with the business of being a Scholar. If you wish you can continue to store experience (until the maximum of level nine and 220% stored experience) but you are not able to become level 10 and scribe level 10 recipes until you complete a short dialogue to choose your sub-class. To become a Scholar you must talk to Alethea Augustine in West Freeport or Alfred Ironforge in Qeynos Harbor.
If you wait until you have the maximum amount of experience at level nine before choosing your sub-class, then you’ll find that you don’t become level 10 immediately upon making your choice, even if your experience bar is completely full and you have stored experience as well. To get to level 10 you will need to head back to your instance and make one more combine.
EverQuest 2 Alchemy Guide
remember as soon as you can exactly what each of them does because using these skills correctly will make a big difference in your success as a crafter.
2.5.4. The Crafting Process
When you are crafting, your crafting window will display five green bars, each with an empty bar below it. The green bars represent the durability of your item, and the empty bars that fill up with blue as you make your item represent your progress.
You are able to make four different quality levels of an item, as represented by the four smaller green bars in your crafting window. These quality levels are referred to as crude, shaped, normal, and pristine. Normally you are going to want to make pristine as much as possible, as you get more experience for a pristine combine than for the other quality levels.
When you are making an item, your objective is usually to keep your durability as high as you can while increasing your progress at the same time. This is somewhat difficult to do as an Artisan, because you do not yet have any buffs for durability. In general do not worry if you find you have a very hard time making pristine items C until you reach level 10 there isn’t much you can do about it unfortunately. However, these first few levels will race by, and you’ll reach level ten and get your first durability buffs quite quickly.
For the moment, your best option is to use the buff called Experiment as often as you can, and use the other two only when you need to counter an event.
2.5.5. One Round of Crafting, In Detail
When you press the Create button, the crafting process begins. The time spent crafting an item is divided into segments of time called ticks or rounds (roughly four seconds long). At the start of each tick, a crafting event may occur, which you will need to counter using the appropriate buff. After you have countered the event you can also use your other buffs to affect the outcome of the crafting round. At the end of the tick, one of four things will happen, listed as follows.
EverQuest 2 Alchemy Guide
There are also three rare crafting events, with special outcomes. These occur infrequently, and give you extra rewards you when you successfully counter them.
Alchemist’s Insight is an uncommon event that grants you a bonus to durability and progress for the item you are working on, and gives you a short duration buff that significantly increases your Chemistry skill. Complete Efficiency is a rare event that
automatically finishes your item to the highest possible quality level when you successfully counter. In addition, your finished item will not use up any components. The rarest event,
Favor of Innovation, automatically finishes the item you are working on to the highest possible quality level, and in addition grants you a rare harvest for the level range and skill you are working in. When you are working with Alchemy, the rare harvest given is precious metal.
2.5.2. Using Crafting Buffs
Open up your knowledge book and click the Tradeskills button. You’ll bring up several pages of skills. These are what you counter crafting events with. When you see an icon appear in your crafting window, you must click on the corresponding icon from your knowledge book to counter the event. There are different sets of icons for each tradeskill. When working with Alchemy, you will use the icons that use the Chemistry technique. You can hold your mouse over each icon to find out which technique it uses.
You must use these specific buffs to counter Alchemy events, but they also have another use apart from countering.
2.5.3. Durability, Progress, and Success Chance
Right click on each of your buffs to find out what they do. The information window will tell you what events are countered by each buff, what the buff does, and what it costs to use it (I have also included this information for you in a table in the Appendices section). You will see that you have one which increases your progress but lowers your durability, one that increases progress at the expense of power, and a third that increases your progress but lowers your success chance slightly.
This is where the other use of your countering buffs comes in. You don’t need to wait until an event occurs to use these skills C you may use them any time you like, to increase your chances of successfully completing an item. It is extremely worthwhile to learn and
EverQuest 2 Alchemy Guide
There are eight quests in the series, one for each crafting class. This is my favorite way of leveling an artisan crafter, as you get a lot of nice rewards out of the series C experience for making the items and for completing each quest, a few copper for each quest completed, a free copy of each of the Artisan Essentials recipe books, a ten slot backpack which holds only harvested items, and a tunic which gives a small bonus to all the crafting skills. These quests are very easy, and if you gather all the resources you need before you start, you’ll complete all the quests very quickly as well. With that in mind, the following list tells you exactly what you need to complete all the quests in the series.
Harvested Items Purchased Items
Frog Leg (2) Dough (1)
Leaded Loam (1) Kindling (1)
Malachite (1) Candle (1)
Lead Cluster (5) Incense (5)
Tin Cluster (7) Filament (5)
Elm (6) Sandpaper (6)
Rawhide Leather (6) Coal (9)
Roots (9)
For each item, you’ll need to use a different set of buffs to counter events with. Don’t worry too much if you don’t get pristine on these, as any quality item will advance the quest (but you will get more experience for pristine quality items).
2.5. Basic Crafting Techniques
2.5.1. Crafting Events
While you are crafting, you’ll notice various icons appearing at the bottom of your crafting window. These happen fairly often and are called crafting events. When they occur, you have a chance to counter them. Successfully countering events can increase your crafting progress or durability, and sometimes both. If you are not successful at countering, your item may lose durability or progress, or both. In addition you may take a small amount of physical damage.