I never really played it much but I've heard EQ2 had the best crafting system of any MMO ever.
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uh oh, another 1 year delay in the release.
only 276,998 to go. lolHell Pantheon has killed more people than Covid at this point.
only 276,998 to go. lol
I never really played it much but I've heard EQ2 had the best crafting system of any MMO ever.
This. It was great near release, but the removal of interdependency between classes and crafted item quality levels ruined the system for crafters. The changes to crafting meant that you can just sit in front of a crafting table on one character and get to level cap. That used to be the case, but it was a significant journey and you wouldn't make much others needed depending on your class.The old crafting system in EQ2 on release was very good. They originally made it so that crafting classes needed each other to produce certain combines like high level spells and rare armour. The biggest thing in EQ2 at launch was that everything you gathered, harvested or mined needed to be refined before it could be used to produce something worthwhile. It was hard to level and expensive and like I say you needed to know other people at a similar level to get refined stuff you could use.
Rares were also very rare at the time and things like Ebon/ruby etc you ended up normally buying with dkp as raid bosses dropped them. Some crafted gear was best in slot for a while in T5.
They nerfed the shit out of it and made it easy mode after a couple of expansions, but it was very rewarding for a while and the richest players were crafting people for a long time.
I pretty much hate crafting in MMO's, but WoW probably did it the best. I liked how they had self only "bonuses" for the professions at the highest levels.
I remember going Jewelcrafting on my Tauren Warrior to socket my gear with the very best HPs gems to have an insane health pool. I would have 1000's more hp's than any other Warrior on the server and people were amazed.
So you farm things then combine over and over, your skill goes up. Mind blowing.
Eq tlp plays one way from classic through kunark, because raid content isn't enough to gear characters you have to do group stuff and another way from velious through maybe tbs or later, there is a long time there where eq is pretty stable. Eq tlps lose players in the oow Era because there is a 9 month stretch of being level 70 with little content, cut that in half and eq tlps would be healthier longer.This. It was great near release, but the removal of interdependency between classes and crafted item quality levels ruined the system for crafters. The changes to crafting meant that you can just sit in front of a crafting table on one character and get to level cap. That used to be the case, but it was a significant journey and you wouldn't make much others needed depending on your class.
The game didn't require you to actually do the crafting yourself to get the gear from it. There was always a separation between 'crafters and adventurers' that was respected throughout the whole game's lifespan.
Until Dave Georgeson wanted to add pay-to-win mechanics to the crafting system, and allow you to research spells by just paying Station Cash for them. Then crafting became massively devalued, as well as "Master" rank spells, the rank after Adept III (now known as "Expert" spells) which you can simply pay money for. Also, the Solstice earring quest was possibly the first break from that - though, you could argue the first implementation of that earring was useful to *everyone*, crafters and adventurers: Earring of the Solstice
Compared to the one now, which is here:
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Earring of the Solstice
\aITEM -642327463 -1630209615:Earring of the Solstice\/a \aITEM -642327463 -1630209615:Earring of the Solstice\/a What does this information mean? As of LU46, characters that have completed The Proof of the Pudding and received their earring can see Master Artisan Red Shinies. Each collection...eq2.fandom.com
They basically shit on the crafting system for monetization as years went on past that. Crafting is largely devalued because itemization in general is a fucking mess on EQ2 now, but that's a separate issue in itself. DPS is measured in the trillions for raidwide at this point. The playerbase dies off after Sentinel's Fate finishes on their progression servers because every expansion past that is utter dogshit. And even then, Sentinel's Fate loses half of the playerbase who love Kunark/Shadow Odyssey.
EQ1/EQ2 really needs to just do a reset to the point where players like and build content based on that point in time (For EQ2 - Kunark/TSO, For EQ1 it could be any point between Velious -> OoW). But that'll never happen because that would destroy their current monetization ability (Krono, Pay-To-Win upgrades, Experience Potions, etc.)
P2W is even worse in EQ2. The comments there are in reference to EQ2 and P2W being abundant. You can pay for power upgrades there (Mercenaries, Overlord, Infusers, Spell Research, Stat Mounts / Stat Familiars from loot boxes in the DBC shop, Consumables w/ Krono)E
Eq tlp plays one way from classic through kunark, because raid content isn't enough to gear characters you have to do group stuff and another way from velious through maybe tbs or later, there is a long time there where eq is pretty stable. Eq tlps lose players in the oow Era because there is a 9 month stretch of being level 70 with little content, cut that in half and eq tlps would be healthier longer.
If anything pay to win is more present in classic and kunark than in any later Era because you spend way more time xping and buffs/clickies aren't common enough so people use tons of potions.