Feldon 
A new Game Update is upon us, which naturally means that Niami Denmother has been living and breathing Test, reporting bugs, trying out recipes, and preparing a veritable compendium of information for interested crafters!
Commentary
Niami’s exhaustive coverage belies the dearth of crafting content in Game Update 63. In fact there are just six quests for each tradeskill class, 4 recipe books (Essentials 91 and 92, and Advanced 91 and 92), and 2 Elite Tradeskill Apprentices, one from the solo/duo or group instances, and one from the Underdepths raid zone.
All but the most leisurely crafters will complete GU63’s “crafting timeline” in less than an hour. There is also nothing new for adorners or tinkerers. If the Qeynos Revamp (GU64) doesn’t contain any crafting content, it’s going to be a long wait for more — November or December 2012.
I don’t think that’s a surprise, after the departure of Domino. Her tenure in charge of tradeskills will come to be known as crafting’s heroic Golden Age, looked back on with longing by those who lived through it and disbelief by those who weren’t there. Just cast your mind back to how trade skills were handled before she took over.
What’s she doing now anyway? Did she ever announce where she was going after she left EQ2? I haven’t seen anything on her blog about it.
She’s at Trion working on not-Rift. 🙂
Thought she’d go there to Trion in the end.
Sorry if this has already been answered, or is well known, but…
When exactly does it go live, and how much ‘planned’ downtime is expected on launch day?
Just wondering if it’s worth taking a day off work.
Cininz
The exact time and maintenance window have not been announced. I’m guessing it starts at 5am and will last 3-4 hours.
@feldon Maybe Domino is working on that Syfy and Trion Worlds collaboration game. That must be so much fun to work on.
* Recipe-giving time sink which can only be obtained through adventure? (ok, you can buy them, but…)
* Same recipes for three different crafting class?
* Only 6 quests per class?
The new SoE way of craft doesn’t smell good for craft loving people. Very sad…
If I read Naiami’s comments at the end of her story correctly…my lvl90 Carp that is a 57 adventurer is out of luck because I am a lvl 90 adventurer/alchemist and won’t be able to but the carp books for her after I do the quest. Is that really true?
It’s a little confusing.
At level 90 tradeskill (any level adventure and any number of AAs), you can complete the four quests that grant your level 91 and 92 Essentials and Advanced books (ie. Advanced Jeweler 91). You can immediately scribe these recipes at level 90. There are no level 90 Essentials or Advanced books. These quests do not require any adventure level to reach or complete, and only common Tier 9 harvestables to complete. The necessary crafting tables and fuel merchant are all in a cave immediately to your left when you first enter the Withered Lands, which is accessible by griffon from Thurgadin Docks.
The only thing you need level 90 adventure level for is if you want to personally acquire the solo/duo/group-acquired Elite Tradeskill Apprentice, or the Underdepths raid-acquired Elite Tradeskill Apprentice. Fortunately, both of these apprentices are Broker-tradeable.
Thanks to Niami for all of her testing and work. Much as we complain about SOE and the lack of tradeskill content, her walkthroughs are very well thought out and thorough.
So for a 90+ Crafter to get an apprentice that knows recipes for raid gear I have to RAID to get the Apprentice then use drops from the RAID zone. Will the zone drop gear for me too or just have items that can be turned into gear?
Just figured out, that there’s no reason to level to 92 tradeskill. You can access everything at 90, including lvl 91 & 92 recipe books.
I asked in test.test chat, so I’m not jumping to conclusions. No one was able to give me a good reason to level from 90 to 92.(I could be wrong, since alot of test stuff is still being tested, but seems shady to me.)
You can buy/trade the prism that spawns the apprentice if you don’t have the level or the ability to get it by yourself.
I haven’t done the raiding part so I don’t know, but for the other one you need to
– be a level 90 TS and Adv
– go to skyshrine and get the 3rd solo/duo mission (you can do it with a merc)
– In the instance (Covenant District) go to the 3rd notch from the left (the room looks like 2 rakes with a space in the center, you want the left rake, the one that is to the top of the map. Apprentice is in the 3rd notch, the one after the 3 names, or 2nd from the center).
– speak to Droag, kill 4 waves of mobs (2 drakes, 3 droag, a wyvern and 2 osseous thingies)
– speak once more to the droag and the group will get the prism.
– use the prism to get the actual apprentice
18h laters, reset the zone, go back in, go another prism ad so forth.
hum, realised belatedly I said Covenant District instead of Dracur Prime