MMORPGs with the best crafting system

Ayumarcan

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December 23, 2018
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Playing WoW for a while and recently started to look into a whole new life with a whole new MMO. Strange as it may sound but I am one of the few who actually enjoyed crafting in WOW. So I started to look up for some popular MMORPGs with a fullfledged crafting system. I made this guide for the players who share this obsession.

EverQuest 2

In EverQuest 2 crafters are divided into 9 different crafting classes: Carpenter, Provisioner, Woodworker, Outfitter, Weaponsmith, Armorer, Scholar, Alchemist, Jeweler and Sage.

All players start at level 1 as Artisans which is a basic crafting class, then at level 10 you choose your crafting archetype: Craftsman, Outfitter or Scholar. Then at level 20 you choose your final destiny: the final crafting class.

Three secondary classes are also available. The items players can craft divide into three groups: Handcrafted, Mastercrafted and Mastercrafted Fabled. Handcrafted items are generally made out of easy to harvest materials. Mastercrafted gear is produced by mix of common items and rare materials. Mastercrafted Fabled items are considered very rare and are usually better than legendary items. It is basically advised to choose a crafting class that corresponds to your adventurer class.

Final Fantasy XIV

Crafting in FFXIV is almost a game on its own and that’s why it has so many fans. Classes here are called Disciples of the Hand and are available after you reach level 10: Carpenter, Blacksmith, Armorer, Goldsmith, Leatherworker, Weaver, Alchemist and Culinarian. In FFXIV they are poorly suited for combat, so generally, it is better to stay in the safe zone while performing crafting. While the whole system may seem a little bit tricky from the start, it is actually fun and may make you fabulously wealthy, since players in FFXIV really tend to buy crafted gear.


Elder Scrolls Online

Seven crafting professions, you are not limited to stay just in one and can choose to specialize in a few. Similarly to other TES games, items in ESO are created on the crafting stations. Each type of them can be found in a particular type of store, so you’d better look for alchemy station in apothecary, however, cooking stations are often met in inns and camps. Crafting here is pretty rewarding and some of the best gear may be created this way.

Lineage 2 Classic

Crafting in Lineage 2 may seem a little complicated from the beginning. Nevertheless, the idea of player-driven economy where only a certain class is able to craft has been pretty unusual from the start. To become a crafter you need to create a dwarf, choose Warsmith class, and level him up. Make money now. There are some ways best suited for a greedy dwarf: selling blessed spiritshots and soulshots, selling crystals or selling gear. And of course, you can craft for other players too. Just open your private shop and let people craft their gear for their money.

EVE Online

Crafting here is called manufacturing and considered to be one of the most complex (and yet inspiring) system in MMOs. Literally the kind of game that makes you run Excel tables at the same time just to craft. You start with the simple ore, create dozen of intermediate products and voila! Have fun with your final product! Some big projects, like ships, require at least 50 basic resource and hundreds of people to work on them. That is why the most efficient production is carried out by the big corporations where members specialize in a particular crafting skill. Well, the harsh truth – it is an industry that fuels the war machine.

Did I miss something? Which MMORPG you favour for the crafting system?
 
Joined
Dec 23, 2018
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Ultima Online for being so early with such a great system, even if it's relatively basic.

Vanguard was also very strong in this way.
 
My very favourite crafting system was the original version in Everquest two, where you had to collaborate with three to five other crafters just to obtain and refine materials. It lead to making long-term contacts and friends, people that understood the effort it took to craft. This just made the whole system much more involved, and crafting was not simply an idle hobby, it was time consuming yet rewarding upon completion. Then they totally destroyed it, I think that might have been one of the nasty changes in live update number thirteen.

Vanguard's system was pretty good also, easy and fun, not really difficult to master at all.
 
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I liked crafting in LOTRO, it was very logical with enough of materials available in shops or descriptions where to find them. Only with the latests expansions it was downgraded, you need extra materials which are hard to obtain and I lost track of how to get them. But with destroying lower level raiding/instance sets, I don't understand their new ideas about how you are suppose to get gear. But I don't understand the new management generally, so better to move to the next.
ESO isn't bad either with their crafting writs, the busy time is based on long research instead of crafting 1000 pieces or something, and I do like their reward system for master crafters.
 
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DDO has almost too much crafting ! :lol:

Almost every new content added has also its own crafting way ! ;) :lol:

I know of only very few offline games with crafting, though. Therefore, I would rather be interested in "[offline] RPGs with the best crafting system" …
 
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Well true, but there are also sandbox online games, which you can play offline and their "quest" are tied to your crafting of all kinds of things, so I guess for MMO RPGs it should be also about how you can roleplay during crafting, which I would say that Everquest II was quite fun with my troll, but still nothing can match LOTRO farming :).
 
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To this day, the only crafting I recall in an MMO as anything more than a tedious bore was Everquest 2's tinkering. Everything about gnomes and tinkered items in that game was perfect.
 
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