Dragon Crafter Experience Training

[Dragon_Talon]

Fajra my dragon is now level 22 going on 23 DRA, yet she's only 14 in DCRA. Is she behind? I'm trying to find more quests to build up her DCRA experience but so far the dragon crafter trainer NPCs have not given her any more quests. Is there anyone she'd need to speak to in particular to build up this experience more?

[Guaran]

The dragon trainers in Dralk and Chiconis have quests that are crafter level based (at least they used to) Like cut 50 Malachite, etc. Also, the mastery trainers have quests that will not only add passive skill boosts, but you get exp for doing the quests. Gemworking Mastery I for example adds +10 Gemworking skill. There are mastery skills for almost all of your craft skills except for salvaging, transmutation, ingenuity.

It isn't actually too big of a deal for your adventure levels to be out in front. Higher adventure level will help ease crafting, since you can now wear tier 2 (slate) craft Tier 2 Teched scales thanks to having an adventure level over 20. Get adventure school to level 40, and you can wear 5 granite strength and power scales, double teched with t3 techs. Then you will go from 14 to 20 crafter much faster. Not only do you have much more craft skill coming from the scales, but your adventure levels increases strength and power, which also gives a boost to your craft skills. Don't forget every 10 levels also opens up an additional scale slot.

[Dragon_Talon]

Thanks for your help!

[SwordMage]

In addition to quests, making stuff gains you crafting levels. If you are interested in grinding crafting levels on the way to level 20, go to the copper/tin area in NT and make metal scales using the auto-deconstruct feature of the crafting window (I have also ground out levels using spells after making lots of spell shards in the sandstone quarry). Last time I checked, you could use the smelter and anvil there, so you aren't wasting a lot of time traveling (and a cargo disk helps).

Although there are rules of thumb about what to make at each crafting level to gain XP, I generally test how much XP I get per resource for a spread of items (one at each minimum skill level with deconstruction) and choose the one that gives the best XP--(XPconstruct+XPdeconstruct)/(Nconstruct-Ndeconstruct)

[Nightcaste]

Another good thing about having your adventure level ahead of your crafting level is that you can clobber any mobs that might be hanging around your resource field

[Dragon_Talon]

I don't know who to talk to in order to get quests, everyone I seem to speak to doesn't give me anything to do and thus no quests, no simple way of raising my DCRA. Is this a glitch or am I speaking to the wrong characters?

A friend ingame, also level 14, suggested I speak to Miemonus in Dralk, yet when I go to see Miemonus, they give me nothing. -_- This makes me think there is something wrong with my game. No characters have given me (Fajra) any DCRA quests since Xarinnis in Parsinia.

My current crafter stats:



No death points.

[AmonGwareth]

If you are below level 20 you see Gerix and Xarinnis. If you are above level 20 you need to complete the quests from Gerix/Xarinnis and then go to Chiconis and Dralk.

[Dragon_Talon]

Okay, I am currently level 14 DCRA. I have done the quests offered by Gerix and Xarinnis, but I don't know who to speak with next in either Chiconis or Dralk.

[AmonGwareth]

Nobody, you arne't high enough level yet. You need to get to 20 first.

[Dragon_Talon]

But I could have sworn some characters gave quests to those with level 10. :s But the characters who offer these quests don't give any to me. And a friend did say to ask Miemonus in Dralk, and their DRAG is lower than mine, yet their DCRA is the same level. I am just confused...

[AmonGwareth]

The dragons in Dralk and Chiconis USED to give out all quests from level 1 up. But they no longer do. If you are below level 20 you will be getting your quests from Gerix and Xarinnis. Once you are level 20, you go to Dralk/Chiconis.

[Dragon_Talon]

Okies, thanks.

[Dhalin]

Another cool thing to do, up until your mid-20s, is to go to New Trismus.

Find your way to the Sandstone Fields (near Pratt's Pond). This is due South of the Dragon Crafter Trainer (I always forget her name). To get there, go to New Trismus proper (the town), and look for the sign in the Northeastern edge. It should have an arrow and say "Flax" or something like that on it. If you follow that, you will pass a clothwork and a leatherwork shop, you know you're going the right way.

Once you get there (you have a cargo disk, right?), fill your disk and inventory up with Sandstone Slabs. This may take awhile, be patient. Once full, drag your disk to the stonework machine, make bricks. Then you will want to make Sandstone Spell Shards.

Dump the spell shards in your disk, open up the equipment screen and click the little chain icon. This makes the disk stay put near the machine. Go back out, fill up on slabs again, make bricks, then make Shards.

Do this until your disk is completely full of Shards (this will be quite a large number of Shards). Once your disk is full, stand near it, open the Equipment Screen, click the Chain icon to attach your disk again.

Head North back towards the Flax Fields you passed earlier. As you pass the clothwork shop, you will see a large tree to the left of the road; go down over the cliff behind that tree, and you will find yourself right near the Dragon Adventurer Trainer's cave. Right across from this cave, is the Crafter Trainer's cave. This cave will have a Scholar's Desk, which you will use to make a huge load of spells. Choose the highest-spellcraft level spell that is at least 50% efficiency (or experiment around a little to see which gives you the most XP). Check the consigners frequently; the best T1 spell you can get requires 180 spellcraft (Arcane Refusal comes to mind).

Since Spell Shards are very lightweight, you can hold a huge load of them (hundreds of them) in one disk load, and each spell takes only a few. This will give you _huge_ amounts of XP into the early 20s, and then into the mid 20s, the XP will start to slow down, but keep at it! You can also deconstruct these, as well.

I also highly recommend (if you have the patience for it), increasing your DCRA level as high as possible. If you get your DCRA to level 40/60/80, you will be able to wear Level 40/60/80 scales, even though your Adventure level is much lower. These scales will greatly boost your ability in combat, and you will die far less often if you're wearing higher-level scales. You will also unlock new scale slots as your DCRA levels increase, just the same as you'd get them if you leveled your DRAG level.

If done right, you could theoretically have a dragon who is a Level 1 adventurer, and a Level 100 crafter. Said dragon could actually wear all 10 Mithril-Marble scales and be utterly invincible for quite awhile. Please note that you cannot wear weapon claws higher than your adventurer level, though Tool Claws would work, though I'm not sure if there are any crystals/techs you could stick on a tool claw that would help your combat effectiveness.

[Dracaena]

Head North back towards the Flax Fields you passed earlier. As you pass the clothwork shop, you will see a large tree to the left of the road; go down over the cliff behind that tree, and you will find yourself right near the Dragon Adventurer Trainer's cave. Right across from this cave, is the Crafter Trainer's cave. This cave will have a Scholar's Desk, which you will use to make a huge load of spells. Choose the highest-spellcraft level spell that is at least 50% efficiency (or experiment around a little to see which gives you the most XP). Check the consigners frequently; the best T1 spell you can get requires 180 spellcraft (Arcane Refusal comes to mind).

If you are going to work on grinding craft you want to use the formula you are Optimal for. This will change as you level up. You don't want to waste your time getting less then half your resources back on the decon. Just starting out it is a little rough as you are optimal at nothing so just work on whatever seems the less annoying to you.

Be sure to go visit Gerix in Kion when you reach craft lv10 and do the spellshard delivery to Parsinia. This will unlock the lv10 craft mastery quests from the trainer at Parsinia and well as complete your first dimensional pocket quest.

The old dragoncrafter crafting quests are gone as they rewarded lore tokens which are phased out. To level craft you are going to have to grind.

I am not sure how the transition to the lv20 craft mastery quests works as my new hatchling is just craft 12 or so. The craft mastery trainers for lv20 and up (quests every 10 craft levels) are split between Chiconis and Dralk, you don't want to miss doing those. Also the dimensional pocket quests are every 10 craft levels with the trainer at Tazoon.


Dracaena

[Dragon_Talon]

Sweet, I'll try out some of that. I reckoned something must have changed since I joined Istaria because people seemed to have gotten their DCRA leveled up much easier than I can right now. Yet I really dont feel like wasting my time online making things for minute increases in my DCRA level. :/

[Dracaena]

I have been working craft with my new hatchling and remembered why I tended to shy away from grinding on spells. They are often (not always) optimal with an odd number of shards. When you decon it rounds down so a formula optimal at 3 shards will only give you one shard back on the deconstruction.

The other thing that slows you down is getting up to optimal (2:1) on making bronze bars or sandstone bricks. I have been working bronze scales, and was painful while still at 4:1. Things improved when I hit 3:1 but still very much looking forward to hitting optimal on the bars.

If you are just a point or two from optimal for an item, remember to use your buffs and check the connie for potions or stat food. I used a bolster strength potion and a gingerbread gnome (not at the same time, don't know if they will stack) to get that last point of scalecraft tonight for one level to make the next formula at optimal.


Dracaena

[Dhalin]

Sweet, I'll try out some of that. I reckoned something must have changed since I joined Istaria because people seemed to have gotten their DCRA leveled up much easier than I can right now. Yet I really dont feel like wasting my time online making things for minute increases in my DCRA level. :/

Using the Spell Method, a full disk of spell shards when making an optimal spell, will gain quite a large load of experience.

It isn't really a "minute increase", it is more like seeing a good half-level when you push the "create this" button. Then, just make sure you have the "automatically deconstruct" checkbox checked, and then tell it to make all again, you'll see another huge exp gain, etc until you run out of spell shards.

It can take awhile to gather up the spell shards until your DCRA gets to about 20 or so, but once it does and once you get optimal with a 180-required spell, exp will fly until your early-to-mid 30s. Your main enemy right now, is travel time. As soon as you're able to equip two wing scales (is that level 30?), ask someone to make you two wing scales with Speed II. That will help you quite a bit.

Once you get past those spell shards (wait until it takes 3 Iron/Slate to make one Bar/Brick), then you would likely be doing something like making and deconstructing either Stone or Metal Scales. Ask around on your server where the best place to work Slate would be. On Order, there used to be a nice area near Mahagra, I don't know if that shop still exists near the Slate field or not. Non-existant travel time, and the shops there were pretty nice for boosting skill (giving you optimal with a higher level recipe = huge xp gains).

[Dracaena]

If you are just a point or two from optimal for an item, remember to use your buffs and check the connie for potions or stat food. I used a bolster strength potion and a gingerbread gnome (not at the same time, don't know if they will stack) to get that last point of scalecraft tonight for one level to make the next formula at optimal.

Forgot to add that if you are grinding on spells, the stat you need to raise is power not strength.


Dracaena

[Dragon_Talon]

Well thanks to you guys my dragon is now level 25 DCRA.

But I need more help... I've been given a quest to create 20 Focused Viridian Azulyte Crystals, but I can't because I don't have the Crystal working ability and I can't find much information about it.

Can anyone shed some light on this please?

[Holth]

To make azulyte crystals you need to join the lairshaper school. The trainer (Relstaroth) is north of Dralk in a cave along with the crystalshaper trainer. If you speak to them they will start you on the path to lairshaping and give you all the forms you need as you do their quests. This is a separate school and the xp goes to lairshaping not dragon crafting.

Holth of Order