Warhammer online Crafting Guide part 1

Post By KUDOS
Information here has been gathered from around the internet and is my interpretation of how things work; like everything in WAR at the moment however, it is subject to change.

Warhammer Online is trying to achieve something different from other MMORPGs with their crafting system. Their aim is to a make a fun, and ultimately rewarding system that does not “feel like a grind” and where everything you create has a relatively immediate use. (So no making thousands of “Wizmos” or “Gyrochrons” that go straight to the nearest NPC vendor!)

The proposed method for accomplishing this is not to have set recipes but instead use an ingredient based system. This means that instead of picking something out of a list, you gather up a few ingredients and throw them into a pot and hope something cool comes out the other side.

Example:
A recipe based system would have you chose out of a list of potions, it so happens that you require a healing potion, the recipe says you need to gather X, Y and Z. You go out and gather the needed ingredients and shortly later you have your healing potion. This is additionally limited as everyone who reads the same recipe will make the same potion.
The Warhammer method is significantly different: Let's say three goblins have been tasked with brewing some healing potions for the guild. From experience the goblins know that plant X is good for making healing potions so they all go and gather plant X. However, they need other ingredients in order to make the potion. It happens to be well known that healing potions need water, so all three goblins also gather some water, during the trip the third goblin is attack by a squid, and after the fight takes the squid leg, deciding he might be able to use in his healing potion. All three goblins now make their potions. The first and second goblins combine their plants and water together in an alchemical process. The first goblin is successful and makes a healing potion; the second by chance achieves a more potent healing potion and records the results. Now the third goblin mixes his plant and water together and then drops in the squid leg …….BANG…FLASH….smoke and a strangely enlivening aroma fill the air, he has brewed a healing potion that also increases attack power.

Overview

The Warhammer method involves a lot of guess work and blind luck but also rewards you for trying out odd combinations with the possibility that your potion comes out stronger than intended. This system also allows you make consumables tailored to your play session. For example, your tank needs a strength potion, however you are going to be engaging in some RvR so you're going to favour very powerful but short lasting strength potions. However a few hours later you're attacking the king and now your tank needs strength potions that can last the encounter but might be a bit weaker. Flexibility is key. Another benefit of this is that some people might be able to work out a potion that no one else can make and then either choose to sell the ingredients needed to make it, or keep the secret and sell the potions for profit.
The obvious drawbacks of this plan is that it is very likely we shall see all known combinations published on the internet and hence it will, with time, turn into a recipe based system, with the down side that you have to alt-tab every time you need to look at one.

The System Explained

Two crafting skills are currently available:

* Apothecary
* Talisman Crafting

You do not need to be at a specific area to craft. As long as you have all the parts needed with you, apothecary can be done anywhere

And four gathering skills:

* Butchering
* Scavenging
* Cultivating
* Magical Salvaging

You can only choose one crafting and one gathering skill. This means that in order to make the more powerful items it will be necessary to work with other players so that all the needed ingredients can be acquired.
So let's go into more detail about each skill.

Butchering, Scavenging

These two belong together as they are very similar but aimed at different monsters. What this skill involves is searching a killed monster for additional resources. You will be able to see if a monster can be butchered or scavenged as flies will swarm around the dead corpse. A simple right click enables you to use the skill providing you have it trained. To work out which monsters require butchering and which may be scavenged the following can be applied: if it lives in the wild and looks like an animal it can only be butchered, if it looks humanoid or might have pockets it must be scavenged (NB: Orcs and Scaven have pockets so they fall into the scavenging section even though Scaven are animals and Orcs live in the wild!)
When simplified: butchering is the practice of cutting up defeated monsters to gain useful organic parts, scavenging is simply looting personal effects and items.


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