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Captn Norrington
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For my main crafter, I always use a human. Humans can carry more weight which helps when making lots of items, and humans have the "jack of all trades" bonus which gives you the equivalent of 15 in every skill in the game for those times when you need to randomly use hiding, or lumberjacking etc. but don't have the actual skill on your character.
I try to keep Imbuing on a Gargoyle though, since Gargoyles have a bonus to imbuing chance to succeed which helps save some ingredients.
I try to keep Imbuing on a Gargoyle though, since Gargoyles have a bonus to imbuing chance to succeed which helps save some ingredients.
Basara
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If you're going be an imbuer, gargoyle is attractive, BUT...
I would say human, in most cases.
Gargoyles are 1-trick ponies, with most of the penalties and none of the bonuses other than imbuing. Too many people have reported seeing no real effect on the other skills, despite the hype at the SA launch (that there are 8-10 properties checked against during item enhancement for failure chance, means that that many percentiles multiplied by each other trend toward 0 really quick, and the bonuses quickly disappear). The other races can at least hop onto their beetle (blue or fire) to keep it from being attacked (a bigger problem on SP than on other shards, but even Trammies like me have to worry about the occasional wandering monster - especially when mining or logging in Ilshenar, Tokuno or Ter Mur/Eodon). I've never heard of Garg actually affecting reforging, unless something was announced that I missed (I was barely around for 2 years dealing with family medical issues around the time it was introduced)
The Elf bonuses are for gathering materials, not crafting, and were based on the 2006 devs having a completely erroneous idea of how some resource gathering actually work (just go out and mine the same area with both races - you'll see there's something wrong with the official way colored ore vs. iron works).
Humans work better for most things resource-related, but that's not directly crafting related.
Jack of All Trades is 20 skill (not 15) in most skills. This means that even with 0 magery, you still have a roughly 25% chance to cast a spell from a level 5 scroll, or a level 3 spell from a magery spellbook. On shards other than SP, this is useful for recall - but can also be useful for a number of other things. Blade Spirit scrolls, mind blast scrolls, (or from book) lock, unlock, telekinesis, teleport, heal, cure, etc. Similarly, if you do the Spellweaving quest and have the book, you get access to Gift of renewal, Nature's Fury (once you get a scroll) and arcane circle. You can get a Chivalry book, and use close wounds and cleanse by fire, and not have to have LRC or regs (just tithe).
Humans' carry weight uses "3.5" in the formula, where other races (and pre-ML humans) used a "3". This means more movement ability, which means you can stay out in the field longer gathering items. If you are going to have mining on the crafter, this comes in handy when using a fire beetle, as you can mine for about an extra 1000 ingots before having to send to the bank with a BoS, or returning home to drop off.
The Human bonus to mining ALMOST balances out the elf bonus. Getting an extra ore 10-20% of time is nice, as the elf bonus can be lacking, other than in terms of total ore (supposedly a 20% bonus, but actually shown by testing to be much less, as it is a human colored ore chance * 20% bonus - so a 30% human chance is only 36% elf chance). Effectively, for veins that give less than 50% colored ore, you're as likely to get as much colored ore with a human as an elf. Mining is probably the skill most likely to be on a crafter, because of its ability to gather resources for mining, tinkering, masonry, and alchemy (not to mention the gems for imbuing).
Elves get far more tree chops than human (that sounds so wrong, in retrospect), but humans can carry more back, especially at 11/22 logs each instead of 10/20. But, unless you are a single-account player on SP, you might want to have a different character doing the lumberjacking (preferably an axer).
For leathers, the human bonuses to leather and to carry weight combine to make humans the best for this, too - but again, it's better to do it with a different character than a pure crafter mule (note that a harvester blade will multiply the human bonus too, so that a 10-leather animal for an elf with a normal tool will give 13 leather to a human with a HB, and 20-leather becomes 25).
In the end, it depends on two decisions.
I would say human, in most cases.
Gargoyles are 1-trick ponies, with most of the penalties and none of the bonuses other than imbuing. Too many people have reported seeing no real effect on the other skills, despite the hype at the SA launch (that there are 8-10 properties checked against during item enhancement for failure chance, means that that many percentiles multiplied by each other trend toward 0 really quick, and the bonuses quickly disappear). The other races can at least hop onto their beetle (blue or fire) to keep it from being attacked (a bigger problem on SP than on other shards, but even Trammies like me have to worry about the occasional wandering monster - especially when mining or logging in Ilshenar, Tokuno or Ter Mur/Eodon). I've never heard of Garg actually affecting reforging, unless something was announced that I missed (I was barely around for 2 years dealing with family medical issues around the time it was introduced)
The Elf bonuses are for gathering materials, not crafting, and were based on the 2006 devs having a completely erroneous idea of how some resource gathering actually work (just go out and mine the same area with both races - you'll see there's something wrong with the official way colored ore vs. iron works).
Humans work better for most things resource-related, but that's not directly crafting related.
Jack of All Trades is 20 skill (not 15) in most skills. This means that even with 0 magery, you still have a roughly 25% chance to cast a spell from a level 5 scroll, or a level 3 spell from a magery spellbook. On shards other than SP, this is useful for recall - but can also be useful for a number of other things. Blade Spirit scrolls, mind blast scrolls, (or from book) lock, unlock, telekinesis, teleport, heal, cure, etc. Similarly, if you do the Spellweaving quest and have the book, you get access to Gift of renewal, Nature's Fury (once you get a scroll) and arcane circle. You can get a Chivalry book, and use close wounds and cleanse by fire, and not have to have LRC or regs (just tithe).
Humans' carry weight uses "3.5" in the formula, where other races (and pre-ML humans) used a "3". This means more movement ability, which means you can stay out in the field longer gathering items. If you are going to have mining on the crafter, this comes in handy when using a fire beetle, as you can mine for about an extra 1000 ingots before having to send to the bank with a BoS, or returning home to drop off.
The Human bonus to mining ALMOST balances out the elf bonus. Getting an extra ore 10-20% of time is nice, as the elf bonus can be lacking, other than in terms of total ore (supposedly a 20% bonus, but actually shown by testing to be much less, as it is a human colored ore chance * 20% bonus - so a 30% human chance is only 36% elf chance). Effectively, for veins that give less than 50% colored ore, you're as likely to get as much colored ore with a human as an elf. Mining is probably the skill most likely to be on a crafter, because of its ability to gather resources for mining, tinkering, masonry, and alchemy (not to mention the gems for imbuing).
Elves get far more tree chops than human (that sounds so wrong, in retrospect), but humans can carry more back, especially at 11/22 logs each instead of 10/20. But, unless you are a single-account player on SP, you might want to have a different character doing the lumberjacking (preferably an axer).
For leathers, the human bonuses to leather and to carry weight combine to make humans the best for this, too - but again, it's better to do it with a different character than a pure crafter mule (note that a harvester blade will multiply the human bonus too, so that a 10-leather animal for an elf with a normal tool will give 13 leather to a human with a HB, and 20-leather becomes 25).
In the end, it depends on two decisions.
- Are you going to be primarily an imbuer? Consider Gargoyle.
- Are you going to do your own resource gathering? Go Human (though, if you're going full-on lumberjack/carp/bowyer with no smithing or mining, Elf may be a better choice).
I have several crafters smith miner, bowcraft logger, tailor tamer, all with skills to support themselves and all humans. My imbuer/carpenter/tinker/cook/scribe/alchemist (with a stoned off skill) is a gargoyle I don't have any uber PVM or PVP characters.