I always get greedy with crafting components, but practically never level up smithing or alchemy to level 5. I always feel prejudiced towards developing innate abilities for some reason, and keep telling myself "I'll raise smithing once I acquire [skill X]" In the meantime I have all the components to construct a Royal Beatdown or whatever, but I just stash them somewhere and die before I ever get my craft on. So when do you level up crafting? Level 2 crafting is not useless, but often feels like it's just part of the cost to get to level 3 or higher. And really all the awesome stuff I really want requires 4 levels or more. So... would I probably do better if I equipped up early on, and earned other skills later?
I usually put most of my early point into it. With smithing, I typically have it maxed by floor 2. If you don't put any points in it though, then I'd just drop it for a utility skill (burglary, dodger, etc). My first point is usually in a weapon skill though, so I can get the triggered attacks. Smithing isn't bad for early levels even at level two, though. Bronze armor and weapons are only useful for the first few floors, for example, so you may as well craft them as soon as you can!
I usually max out the main crafting line immediately, maybe spending 1 point elsewhere for early survivability. Having, say, a slinky flail or katana or fruitful staff or whatever seems more useful to me than maxing your weapon tree early on. This is just my experience; I have no numbers or whatever to prove it.
It depends on the skill. Alchemy, for example, is only really important early if you want to craft orbs or staves -- and then you can compare directly the value you get from a new orb/staff vs. the value you get from a mage level (instead of a rogue level plus a sagacity point, which is what alchemy gives you). Tinkering is useful pretty much at any point, since it gives you more trap affinity and gives you more/better thrown weapons and bolts -- conversely, the most powerful ability it provides is that of converting ingots into bolts (of any quality), but you can do that without any tinkering levels at all if you find some goggles. With smithing, I rather feel like if you aren't going to take advantage of early levels then you really needn't bother with the skill at all. Its big gains are from letting you make massive weapons on floor 2 or 3; the more you put that off the less worthwhile the skill is.
Alchemy - Rush for Staves user (be aware that you will be screwed if you don't find a blue potion or zinc within the first 2 floors), Otherwise 2 points in it sometimes mid game. Smith - Between character level 4 - 6. Put the last point in only when you have enough steel for the serpentine. Tinker - After my primary melee skill is maxed
I'm giving another go to my vampirism-smithing-defensive buffs build, and this is the way I'm leveling stuff up: One "survival" skillpoint (which goes into armor, shields, berserk, or maces) One burglary skillpoint (I'll probably NOT buy the final skill though, I'm in it just for ninja vanish/move in mysterious ways) One smithing skillpoint Also, what do y'all guys have against bronze armor? It's kind of the same as iron/steel armor, it just has less minuses and less bonuses. And some bronze items have *more* blocking chance than the iron/steel counterparts. The armor I've used the least is aluminum items, they have great block chance and very few maluses but it's got just too damn litle absorption. But aluminum armor items have the smallest spell power minuses, right?
I usually put the points in crafting skills fairly quickly. There is only so much bagspace, and the amount of craftable stuff you receive keeps on growing. If you want to keep your inventory from being too cluttered, you need to start crafting early on. Well, that's what I do anyway. That, or lutefisk cube.
I like the bronze armors, and the weapons are actually not bad. For example, the gladius has counterattack, which is great for a low level counter fighter. I was using two of them until I could scrounge enough iron or steel to make something significantly better. It really doesn't make sense to skip it, since you won't be using bronze for anything else later (unless you are a tinker). Aluminum is great for hybrids, and I've used it at least somewhat effectively in the past.
Bronze armor has no piercing resistance low armor absorb, which are extremely important for the first half of the game. Beyond which you should be able to find something better. Aluminum Helm give blocks and doesn't butcher your magic power. Fine bronze greaves are somewhat comparable to Aluminum Boot now since 1.05, and all depends on the magic power breakpoints. Aluminum Armor is pretty bad and I almost never made them.
I found that plastic plate (sorry if that's too spoilery) is a decent hybrid spellcaster armor at mid levels. Good block bonus and absorption, absolutely no nerfing of magical powers, stats or dodge ability. Also not hard to make. Also the bejeweled shield is crazy easy to make, and it's probably the best craftable shield (it actually boosts magic power). I kind of wish there more a few more armors in each class... perhaps plastic could be a little bit more useful?
Right now, with the aforementioned build, I'm trying to max block chance and I'm using a mixture of armor of different materials. The Heroic Bronze Aspis has 10 (!) block chance, but I also have a runed iron skjoldr in store, basically I'm making all the different armor items I can and comparing them. It really depends on which stat you're trying to boost, and block chance seems to vary wildly between different materials. I'm focusing on block chance, and I'm using: Aluminum helmet heroic bronze aspis serpentine platemail steel reinforced boots (I'm not using the aluminum boots, that grant 1 more block chance, because I don't want the piercing resistance to drop below 10) An artifact ring of iron spikes which gives 8 block chance and 8 counterattack, and another ring that gives transmutation resistance and 1 stubborness because I need another pyrite sun to make another ring of iron spikes... I've found TONS of chalk and black pearls in this run, but only one pyrite sun, which I used to make the flail of pleiades. I think the character hits a peak of 77-78 block chance with all the buffs active, I'm on dungeon level 5
Are you able to find potions of steeling to create the ring of iron thorns? I can see that you have to have at least alchemy level 2 to make them, but I didn't pick alchemy on my swords/vampire/smith and have never seen one in the dungeon. I really want to make this ring but don't see how I can with my current build unless I start over.
I find enough of them, usually. I have two of them right now (floor nine), and I had found enough to craft my rings by floor three or four, I believe.
I love crafting (as my avatar will testify). That said, I often get impatient waiting for the right materials to make necessary equipment. Most recently, I also had to sweat getting the right hidden recipe for full plate, because when I would try to create it without the recipe, I'd wind up with a sword instead of the improved armor. I never did get that darn recipe 8-(.
You dont need the recipes to craft things(if you know the recipe then you just put the stuff in and craft) You can check out dredmorwiki.com to look up the recipes you dont remember.
If you don't have the recipe, and the ingredients for the recipe are a superset of the ingredients for a recipe that comes earlier in the list, then you can't make the item. That's what happens when you try to make full plate without the recipe -- the steel ingots make a sword instead, and the cuirass is ignored.
I craft early on the premise that early foes are easier, but I guess that's not so true (given my hero is weaker, also). Still, a nicely crafted weapon & armor really helps out early. I also love crafting bombs/flasks and ammo.
