A Guide to the Vanguard Crafting Skill Grind

Posted by Cyprus in Vanguard News, Vanguard Guides

Crafting is a grind, so how can you maximize the experience gained over time?
I spent some time gathering data on the experience made per make, and per work order turn in. The results were different then I expected, and definitely changed the way I do the crafting grind. I will be using round numbers for examples, but the experience does vary slightly. Also, the hard numbers being used in this guide are from level 9-11 Blacksmithing, some of the numbers will vary depending on your crafting level and your trade skill, but the methods outlined in this guide remain to be the fastest route to gaining crafting levels, despite your level or trade.

Ok, let me first explain a few things about work orders (WO’s), and let’s set up some acronyms for easy reference.

3 Standard Work Order Types:
Make an item, make a set, and make a batch. We’ll refer to them as…

WO1 - make a… (1 item)
WO3 - make a set of… (3 items)
WO5 - make a batch of… (5 items)

4 Standard Difficulty Levels:
Very easy, east, moderate and difficult. We’ll refer to them using…

VE - Very Easy
E - Easy
M - Moderate
D - Difficult

For example, a MWO5 would be a moderate work order for a batch (5 items).
When you process a WO, you get experience when you make each item, but you get much more experience when you turn in the completed WO. For this discussion, a Bonus is the experience gained when you turn in a WO.

Lets talk numbers
[NOTE: see bottom of guide for more information on the numbers; where, what levels, what craft, etc.]

Difficulty changes the experience:
The difficulty of the WO determines how much experience you will receive, but the change is very small.
VEWO - offer no exp per make, and a negligible bonus
EWO - offer about 100-125 exp per make, and 500-600 exp bonus
MWO - offer about 115-175 exp per make, and 525-675 exp bonus
DWO - offer about 140-200 exp per make, and 575-750 exp bonus

WO1-WO3-WO5 differences:
Each item you make in the same WO will give you increased exp. For example, if you take a WO5 and make all B quality items, your first item would be the lowest exp gained, and each one after would yield more exp. This makes sense, because you have a chance to mess up on every item, meaning the 5th make in a WO5 is the toughest to make. The growth of experience through a WO5 finishes with the 5th item being roughly double the exp of the first make.

Sample 1: An example of all B quality made items in a MWO5:

Item 1 - 115
Item 2 - 130
Item 3 - 150
Item 4 - 175
Item 5 - 200

There is only a slight difference between WO1, WO3, and WO5 bonus experience. So, since the bonus experience is essentially the same for doing a WO1 as it is for doing a WO5, and its much faster and effecient to complete 5 separate WO1’s and cashing in on the 5 separate bonuses, than it is to create 5 items for a single WO5, with only a single bonus - it makes since to focus on completing WO1’s if you’re looking to level up quickly.

Sample 2: Do 1 x MWO5, your XP would go something like this:

Item 1 - 115
Item 2 - 130
Item 3 - 150
Item 4 - 175
Item 5 - 200
Bonus - 700
Totaling - 1470

Sample 3: Do 5 x MWO1’s, your XP would go something like this:

Item 1 - 120
Bonus 1 - 600
Item 2 - 120
Bonus 2 - 600
Item 3 - 120
Bonus 3 - 600
Item 4 - 120
Bonus 4 - 600
Item 5 - 120
Bonus 5 - 600
Totaling 3600

Quite a bit of difference in time and effort doing 5 x WO1’s rather than 1 x WO5’s. Worse case scenario you find you’re unable to complete a session because of complications - you’ve only wasted the investment into that single item and not potentially 4 other items completed previously.

Exp vs. Reward

My general philosophy is to level up first, then go for reward. Why spend time doing WO5’s for gear and some extra loot, when you can level quickly and hit up much higher level WO5’s later. Obviously, if you are in it for loot, then doing WO5’s will get you more, but leveling faster will allow for better rewards and better crafting recipes quicker.

General Strategy for leveling crafting

Each level you gain points within your specific skill sets (view your skills/skill points by opening your character screen selecting the “Crafting” tab on the left, then selecting the “Skills” tab on the bottom).

At the beginning of a level, I generally do several EWO1’s for Refining and Finishing to max out my skills. Don’t forget to use the locks and such, so that you can max out what you want.

Next, I move on to MWO1’s and produce C quality items. Why C? C’s are almost a guarantee and require less time & materials to accomplish, so I do C’s constantly throughout the level. Sometimes, I’ll notice that I’m getting into C pretty easily and push for B’s, but never at the gamble of losing the item. B quality items will get you higher experience and higher rewards, but getting greedy can cause problems completing a WO which slows you down. Aiming for a C quality will always be a safe bet.

I hope this has been helpful. At the time of my research, I was around level 10, blacksmith. I am now a much higher weapon smith, and the pattern is still the same. Experience has grown quite a bit, and the difference between Easy and Moderates has increased as well. So, the only change that is worth mentioning so far, is that getting to Moderates quickly is important.

Helpful tips:

When you level, you get more points to add to your attributes, so do some easy WO’s to get those points maxed out
Complications do NOT have to be tended to, near the end of a make, its common to power through them if their affect is “very low” or “low”
Other continents do not allow you to train at their trainers until you are level 11 and have completed the main “style” quest on each continent

NOTES ABOUT ABOVE GUIDE:
The research for the numbers above was done mostly during the levels 9-11, blacksmithing. The numbers are rough estimates for easier discussion, because the data collected varied slightly. As your level increases, all the experience gains grow as well.
With my own experience, Difficult WO’s proved to be a big gamble, where a good portion of the WO’s had too many complications to complete even C quality items. If, by some chance, you are able to complete DWO1’s with a very high success rate, that would probably be the best way to level.

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