A Casual Stroll to Mordor

Dev Diary: Crafting in Siege of Mirkwood

Posted on 30. Nov, 2009 by Merric in Turbine

One of the things I have mixed feelings about with Mirkwood is the fact that there is not another tier of crafting coming out with its release.  Why mixed?  Well, because I like to see additional tiers of crafting.  It makes me feel like there is another “step” to accomplish.  However, on the other side this means that there will be less competition for the top-tier ore, that people who have a lot of ore stored will be able to use it, and that the price of said ore will probably go up temporarily and then drop as time passes due to an inevitable surplus.  It also means I don’t have to scramble to finish off my crafting, which at this point has fallen behind due to alts and a general push for XP over crafting with Meredoc.

However, just because that there isn’t a new tier for crafting that doesn’t mean that there is nothing new for those of us who enjoy making items for ourselves.  In fact, released in a Developer Diary today there is a new type of recipe being announced that is called a “multi-output recipe”.

Here we can see: The Malledhrim Sword recipe is selected in the upper portion of the panel (1); the Malledhrim Sword of Striking, one of the potential outputs for this recipe, displayed in the middle portion of the panel (2); the Multi-output button on the lower-left portion of the panel (3).

So the cool thing about this is now, you can use this same recipe to create a different (but similar) item.  The example used in the diary is that by pressing the Multi-Output button you can change the item that will be created to the “Malledhrim Sword of Warding”.  Pretty neat huh?

So what’s the difference between the items?  Well, just the bonus stats.  As most of you recall all weapons of the same types have had their speeds set to the same value regardless of level; and weapons of the same type have had their damage range (pretty much) set to the same range as well.  And while this initially may not be a big deal to some, it’s neat to me in now that this not only means that I have to purchase less recipes (although granted they could be just as expensive as multiple recipes) but it means a cleaner crafting list.  I am also filled with hope that this will allow Turbine to grant us the option for creating of a greater variety of items as well.  Normally when I got a recipe it was either good or junk, now hopefully it will have a good option for all my characters.

The diary goes on to say that the Crafting Guilds will have new recipes for Legendary Items (which means a lighter coin-purse for me) which will “… give crafters the ability to make the best Third Age and reforged Second Age Legendary Weapons and class items available.”  You will need an “Ancient Symbol” to create a Reforged Second Age weapon, which can be found in dungeons or on the Auction House as they are not bound to players.

There is also the new relic slot on Legendary Items which can only be filled with relics created by players.  Recipes that will be located in craft guild-halls can be used to create a barter item that will be exchanged for a sealed crafted relic, which will come in Normal and Legendary levels.  Normal Crafted Relics grant a bonus to agility/fate/might/vitality/will/morale/power and Legendary grant a bonus to melee/ranged/tactical/healing abilities; each guild makes a Normal relic unique to that crafting guild, but all crafting guilds sell all of the Legendary recipes.  The Normal version can be traded/sold while it is still sealed, but the Legendary version is bound to the crafter.  Crafted relics will have a minimum item level requirement, which the Legendary Item must meet.

The only people who are going to feel the hurt on this will be those who are Explorers purely to collect resources and have not tailored.  In order to min/max their character they will need to not only level Tailoring to Supreme, but will also need to gain Ally status with the Tailor’s crafting guild.  Otherwise, they will be unable to obtain the Legendary Crafting Relics.  I’m on the fence about this, because some people don’t like crafting, however this does promote a reason for crafting outside of what already exists in the game.  If anyone who is not a crafter has input on this, I’d love to hear it.

They are now allowing for the exchange of small and medium guild reputation items into the next higher level item.

• Trade in 7 small guild reputation items; get 1 medium guild reputation item in return.
• Trade in 3 medium guild reputation items; get 1 large guild reputation item in return.

This is definitely long overdue and a welcome change, although it means I need to get more aggressive about mining!  Other changes include:

Reduced required ingredients for many “component” recipes. Some recipes required too many ingredients to make the bindings, plates, hafts, and blades you use to craft armour, shields, and weapons. You will find these recipes now require fewer ingredients, and are in line with similar component recipes.

Oh thank goodness for this!  Anything that helps reduce the amount of resources for crafting is something I love.

Rebalanced required ingredients for equipment and class item recipes. Auto-granted recipes no longer use any crafted components from other professions (bindings, plates, etc.) and now require the fewest ingredients. Recipes purchased from profession vendors are now only slightly more difficult than auto-granted. Recipes found in treasure or from reputation rewards are now only slightly more difficult than vendor-bought. And lastly, the one-shot recipes found in treasure or from reputation rewards are now the most difficult recipes. One-shot recipes use the most ingredients and typically require a crafted component from another profession, in addition to a rare gem shard or mithril flake.

All I can say is hallelujah!  This will mean that leveling crafting should go a lot faster and require a lot less trading of items between alts.  Man, this makes me super happy!

Increased crafting experience awarded for some recipe types. Craft experience awarded for executing recipes now improves with each increase in difficulty. In general, auto-granted recipes award 6 points of crafting experience, recipes purchased from profession vendors award 8 points, recipes found in treasure or from reputation rewards give 10 points, and one-shot recipes found in treasure or from reputation rewards will award 12 points.

Again, awesome change.  I think it’s a good idea for Turbine to increase the leveling of crafting along with the leveling of characters.  It will make for good balance and ensuring that crafting doesn’t get left in the dust as people level.

Tags: crafting, dev diary, Dev Team, Siege of Mirkwood