Crafting when?

[xdesperado]

Hey all, been a long time since I last played and never did much with crafting before.
Since I have started playing again I'm wondering at what point do you all recommend starting to try crafting some special gear?
In my current game I'm just staring to clear the Oskahold Vault so guessing it's far to early to be worth the investment of crystals for gear that will quickly become obsolete anyways but want to have some sort of game plan in mind.
Playing on Nightmare, no deaths so far with Selen, Kincaid, Fyona and Vincent as my party. Been mostly focusing on getting S,K & Vs -AP talents up though will start working on other talents for them shortly. F has been getting Strickening mostly with a 2nd point of Blessed Aura to help keep the party upright recently added, will likely add a point of Devotion for her next for curse removal then Fervor until I can start giving her some Reckoning.
Anyways hope everyone is staying safe and healthy and thanks in advance for any response here.

[drspendlove]

To give you some concrete examples of what you can craft, visit bit.ly/heroesofsteel

[xdesperado]

drspendlove thanks been checking that out, just broke down and crafted a set of throwing knives for Kincaid and a hammer for Fyona. Both gave me nice boosts that were really needed just hoping I don't wind up regretting spending the crystals later lol.

[xdesperado]

Should probably note what I crafted here.

Bladesman Knives 1 AP (Thrown Weapon) 3 Accuracy; 2 Parry; 19-31 Damage; 3 Range; +1 MP; =8 Ice Damage; 3% Critical; +3 Dodge; +3 Stealth; +4% SP Drain
Kincaid has a Cloak and Amulet that also add SP Drain and with this is doing consistent enough damage that Darting Steel 1 is basically a free attack and often adds SP instead of costing him any.
Crafted this after clearing Vault at Oskahold (prior to clearing the farmhalls) and made for a very big boost in his combat performance and serious reduction in needing to constantly feed him SP potions.

Infantry Mace 2 AP (1-H Hammer) 3 Accuracy; 1 Parry; 37-48 Damage, +60 Max SP; +10 Ice Damage; +8 Lightening Damage; 3% Critical; +4% SP Drain
Fyona is loving this as she's now able to contribute in a significant way to combat and with Zealous Strikes 1 rarely costing more than 1 SP and often being free or even adding SP she almost never needs a SP Potion.
Crafted this after clearing Vault at Oskahold same time as Kincaids TKs and very happy with the results thus far.

[crimsonking]

You should look for and add your crafting results in this thread: startradersrpg.proboards.com/thread/15938/crafting-results-wip?page=5

You will usually find enough Bloodstones to craft stuff every now and then, but you should look up the list in the linked thread for desired results.

[xdesperado]

Apr 20, 2020 1:18:28 GMT -5 crimsonking said:

You should look for and add your crafting results in this thread: startradersrpg.proboards.com/thread/15938/crafting-results-wip?page=5

You will usually find enough Bloodstones to craft stuff every now and then, but you should look up the list in the linked thread for desired results.

Been using the charts drspendlove provided link to above to figure out what I want to try crafting and following the info in the crafting 101 thread to get desired results which has worked out well so far.

As an example just got lucky and found an Oxenbone Bow in first chest I ran into in Torrent Watershed. Saw on chart that there was a good Ice version so ran back to Oskahold and using an Eyestruck Ring (+6 Ice damage; +2 Lightning Resist) for a tuner got my desired result.

Oxenbone Bow 2 AP (Bow) 5 Accuracy; 23-56 Damage; 6 Range; +90 SP; +10 Ice Damage; +3 Dodge; +3 Stealth; +4% SP Drain

Was a harder choice between this craft and the Lightening version than I at first thought it would be, but this version gives me an extra 10 SP and SP Drain which is very useful considering Selen uses Pinning Shot 5 fairly heavily and makes a lot of bow attacks at this point regardless. So decided that getting the SP Drain I felt will help more currently than the extra Stealth and HP from Lightning version. Feel the added SP and SP Drain along with much improved Damage from this Bow over the Icebow from Troll hunt side quest will be a big improvement for Selen and help reduce her reliance on SP pots greatly.

[xdesperado]

Immediately after getting out of the Torrent Watershed and reaching Riven Field I did the following Crafts.

Scything Dagger 1 AP (Light Blade) 3 Accuracy; 3 Parry; 21-35 Damage; +1 Move Point; +10 Ice Damage; 3% critical; +10% Critical Damage; +4 Parry; +6 Stealth
Used Longstride Boots (+1 Move Point) as the tuning item for this craft.
This one is for Selen. While I would have liked more SP Drain like I could get with some other choices of weapons either here or in next section, feel the good damage, for a 1 AP Blade, big bump to Stealth, and added MP are to good an improvement for her at this point. As I've been working on her Punishing Blades added MP will let me more easily position her for those attacks and better damage will help make sure she gets the curse on enemies she hits.

Keen Hilted Dagger 1 AP (Light Blade) 3 Accuracy; 5 Parry; +60 Max SP; +10 Fire Damage; 2% Critical; +4 Dodge; +2% SP Drain
Used Bracers of the Dog (+4 Fire Damage, +4 Fire Resist) as the tuning item for this craft.
This one is for Vincent. He's been stuck carrying a Staff just for a bit of extra SP and as I'd made an early investment into his Blade skill that was not an optimal situation. While a blade that had +Lightning would have been nice to match with his Thundering Blades I've been working up this gives him the much needed SP and is a small start on building him some SP Drain as well. Note; the chart I'm using to help me choose what to craft doesn't list either the Ice or Lightning versions for the Keen Hilted Dagger so there is a chance I might have gotten something better going with a craft for one of those other versions but I didn't want to risk my resources in terms of Crystals and Tuning Items hoping for something great with another version during this NMI run.

Spiked Shield (Shield) 6 Parry; Auto-Blocks 3% Ranged Attacks; +100 Max SP; +6 Damage; 2% Critical; +8 All Resists; +8% SP Drain
Used Footfall Cloak (+4 Armor; +2 Unholy Resist; +2% SP Drain) as the tuning item for this craft.
This is for Fyona. Even without the craft this would have been a solid upgrade for her, giving her the extra Resists should further help her survivability, while the extra SP and SP Drain will help keep her off the SP Pots going forward and extra damage and increased critical chance will help her to keep putting the smackdown on enemies.

Boiled Cuirass (Light) 25 Armor; +70 Max HP; +30 Max SP; +3% SP Drain
Used Opel Eye Amulet (+28 Max SP, +2% SP Drain) as the tuning item for this craft.
This is for Vincent. Big boost in Armor over what he was wearing, more HP and SP and some SP Drain to help when he uses that nifty new dagger I just crafted for him.
Note had planned to craft a second one of these for Kincaid, however a difference in the amount of SP drain actually gained vs what chart I'm going off of lists has me holding off for moment. Kincaid's current armor is giving 4% SP Drain and adding +2 Damage to his attacks, so not sure going from 16 Armor up to 25 Armor and the extra 70 HP are worth the loss in SP Drain and Damage changing to this armor would incur. Might still craft it to give to Fyona though that would actually reduce her Armor, Dodge and Resists so again not sure it's worth the switch. Despite the SP Drain giving it to Selen isn't really an option as it would cost her Stealth and Evasion