Crafting question

[Ereglos]

Hello guys. Am i going to miss anything important if i just completely skip crafting ?
I have a 23 level champion. Will the end-game be kinda messy for me if i don't craft anything at all ?
Thanks in advance !

[HaleElven]

How much you miss out on depends on how you play, and for how long.

Without being able to craft for yourself, you're going to be dependent on quest rewards, barterers, random drops and others for your gear.

Now, there are 7 Crafting Professions. And, there are 7 Vocations, each highlighting a specific Crafting Profession.

• Cook - Makes food consumables
• Jeweller - Makes jewellery
• Metalsmith - Makes heavy armor and crafting tools
• Tailor - Makes light/medium armor and cloaks
• Weaponsmith - Makes metal-based weapons
• Woodworker - Makes wood-based weapons and bows

Now, in my opinion, the main point to crafting it to be able to join a Crafting guild, and eventually be able to craft your own Legendary items.

As a Champion, your Legendary items are a main-hand weapon (Weaponsmith/Woodworker) and a Rune class-item (Jeweller).
So, if/when you get to the level cap, if you do not have either of those Professions, you will have to rely on others to craft your Second/First Age Legendaries.

[Ereglos]

Thanks for the reply! I can now understand that crafting is important. I also have two noob questions. How am i supposed to find all the needed ingredients in order to craft something? I tried crafting in the past but i didn't understand much about how it works and i ended up quiting. When should i join a crafting guild?

[HaleElven]

Thanks for the reply! I can now understand that crafting is important. I also have two noob questions. How am i supposed to find all the needed ingredients in order to craft something? I tried crafting in the past but i didn't understand much about how it works and i ended up quiting.

First, each Vocation has a Gathering Profession to feed the Crafting Profession.

• Armorer has Prospector to gather Ore, smelt them into Ingots for Metalsmith
• Armsman has Prospector to gather Ore, smelt them into Ingots for Weaponsmith
• Explorer has Forester to tan Hides into Leathers for Tailor
• Historian has Scholar to gather scraps of Lore and Relics
• Tinkerer has Prospector to gather Ore, smelt them into Ingots for Jeweller
• Woodsman has Forester to gather Branches, shape them Boards for Woodworker
• Yeoman has Farmer to grow and harvest crops for Cook

Once you have the Ingots/Boards/Leathers/Lore/Crops, anything else you may need can be purchased from either a Supplier or a Professional vendor (ie. an "Expert Metalsmith" vendor sells Metalsmith items).

When should i join a crafting guild?

When you become proficient in the Expert (third) tier in a craft, you'll get a quest before you can advance to mastery of the tier. After completing the quest, you can talk to the Master of Guilds at the local crafting hall and join a guild.

[Geldeger]

In my view, crafting is not important. It won't impact your end-game. You will get most items from instances or buy them for marks/medalions/seals. The few items that you won't be able to get, you can ask someone else to craft for you. No matter what profession you choose, you still won't be able to craft everything unless you have a stable of high level alts. You will still have to ask other people to craft for you. You will ask your kinmates, or you will ask on world chat and pay a small fee. That's what most people do.

The main unique advantage of crafting is that you get a nice relic for your Legendary Item. In other words, you get a stats bonus. You can't get this bonus if you don't craft it yourself. But (A) it takes time and grind to get to that point, it's not easy to level up most professions, and then you have to level up guild reputation too; it can get tedious, and (B) the game is quite easy and that bonus is not at all necessary. If you don't have it, you will still be fine when you reach endgame.

I do craft, but I craft because I enjoy it. Not because it's important. I just like to craft things for my lower level kinmates. And leveling professions is just something to do.

[Nimdiell]

Hello! I'm a Westemnet Master of the Guild (woodworker) and I can't make my own first age legendary weapon because I'm a solo player and I can't run 12 members raids for the rare items (Blemished Symbol of the Elder King and such things) I understand, it's a rare component but why it's completely unavailable for the solo players? I know, it's available in AH for 500 Gold but I can't buy it for 500 Gold. I know, some rare items are available at the Skirmish camp but I couldn't find "Blemished Symbol of the Elder King" at the Skirmish camp. Anybody can help me with this rare item or any suggestion? "Join to a kinship and do raids..." doesn't solve my problem because my pc is weak for LOTRO and it would freeze during such raids.

[xandervix_tog]

Hello! I'm a Westemnet Master of the Guild (woodworker) and I can't make my own first age legendary weapon because I'm a solo player and I can't run 12 members raids for the rare items (Blemished Symbol of the Elder King and such things) I understand, it's a rare component but why it's completely unavailable for the solo players? I know, it's available in AH for 500 Gold but I can't buy it for 500 Gold. I know, some rare items are available at the Skirmish camp but I couldn't find "Blemished Symbol of the Elder King" at the Skirmish camp. Anybody can help me with this rare item or any suggestion? "Join to a kinship and do raids..." doesn't solve my problem because my pc is weak for LOTRO and it would freeze during such raids.

You can run Big Battles - Blemished Symbols of the Elder King will drop as platinum rewards. The easiest way to get platinum rewards is to run a solo BB as a duo. I recently ran 5 BBs and got 2 symbols - good luck!

[Nimdiell]

Thank you for the reply xandervix_tog. I'll try it. This is something I haven't tried before.

[Gladnagl]

Re: The OP original question about crafting for his character:

Regarding the Legendary Item aspect; it's really not that important. So many LI weapons and class items drop in Moria, that if you don't pick them up yourself, you can often find them in the AH at 150s - 250s buyout price. The crafted relic you can make for your items' slots are nice to have, but not critical unless you raid (then you have an entirely different equipment problem to deal with).

So the short answer is, not crafting will not keep you from advancing in the game. It will only be a missing element that you might enjoy. And there is no reason why you can't pick it up later when the idea might interest you more.

[HaleElven]

Regarding the Legendary Item aspect; it's really not that important. So many LI weapons and class items drop in Moria, that if you don't pick them up yourself, you can often find them in the AH at 150s - 250s buyout price. The crafted relic you can make for your items' slots are nice to have, but not critical unless you raid (then you have an entirely different equipment problem to deal with).

I don't know what level you are, or how far you've progressed through the game, but when we talk about crafting your own Legendary Item, we're talking about being at level cap. You know? lvl 100 First/Second Ages. We're not talking about the lvl 50-59 Third ages found in Moria, where they are easily bartered for.

Trying to simply buy a lvl 100 First Age will costs you hundreds of Gold, not the Silver.

[Gladnagl]

I don't know what level you are, or how far you've progressed through the game, but when we talk about crafting your own Legendary Item, we're talking about being at level cap. You know? lvl 100 First/Second Ages. We're not talking about the lvl 50-59 Third ages found in Moria, where they are easily bartered for.

Trying to simply buy a lvl 100 First Age will costs you hundreds of Gold, not the Silver.

To the original poster's original point, at Level 23 (or Level 53 in the case of LIs), crafting is not necessary. If he hits level cap and feels an 2A or 1A is required, he can speed rep a guild to max in about 3-4 weeks with the appropriate stacks of materials.

Many players hit level cap and hold on to their Level 85+ antique LIs for sentimental reaons.