Hail fellow Hyborians!
First I want to let you guys and gals know who I am. I have in recent months taken over the crafting system here at Funcom. Rest assured I do read the crafting forums. And believe me when I say individual suggestions are noted, and we are working hard to accommodate them where appropriate. Obviously, some concerns are easy to address, while others tie back to known underlying issues. It's always a balance between spending resources on a quick-fix to get something out to the players, and concentrating on more comprehensive profession upgrades which to varying degrees are planned across the board.
A few months ago Twicer laid out an
overview/roadmap for crafting, and since then the team has been hard at work to get players all that was promised.
Along those lines I wanted to let players know what's going on with tradeskills both in the up-coming update, as well as hint a little at our future plans. In terms of the crafting experience, we want players to see immediate, incremental improvements which bring each profession towards our long term goals for the system as a whole.
If all goes well, you will start to see the following appear on test live as part of the scheduled content release for update 3. Just as a note, the new Weaponsmith and Armorsmith recipe items outlined below have a combination of gem slots and inherent stats.
Weaponsmithing
City Weapons
City weapons are crafted weapons which use the current feat progression, and utilize guild city buildings. Scores of these blue recipes ranging in level from 42 to 80 will be found throughout Hyboria as world or dungeon drops. Incidentally, weaponsmiths can now make weapon types that were previously unavailable to craft.
Base Weapons
Base weapons are mid-level wearable weapons, which may also be upgraded into high level culture weapons. Each recipe can create a few different base weapons. The base weapon recipes will drop in specific dungeons. Base weapons have no gem slots, due to the fact they are consumed in higher-level recipes.
Culture Weapons
Culture weapons are end-game lore related weapons that are upgraded from a base weapon. Each of the recipes can make three different culture weapons, grouped by Hyborian geography. The recipes do not require the top tiers of weaponsmithing, nor do they require a guild city. This is in order to create a viable path for, shall we say, less social crafters. Culture weapon recipes will drop off lore-appropriate bosses in endgame group dungeons, group social dungeons, or ACGs.
Armorsmithing
City Armors
Like their weapon counterparts, city armors are crafted armors which use the current feat progression, and utilize guild city buildings. Over a hundred of these recipes ranging in level from 42 to 80 may be found as world or dungeon loot.
Base Armors
Base armors are wearable armors, which are also consumed in crafting. For these base armors we have created a small number of mid-level recipes – one per base class. Each recipe can produce multiple pieces of the given base armor set. These recipes drop off specific bosses in appropriate level dungeons. Base armors have no gem slots.
Culture Armors
Culture armors are high level lore-related armors, and we have given each class their own set. The recipes for culture armors do not require the top tier Armorsmithing feats, nor do they require a guild city. Each recipe can produce multiple pieces of the set, and each piece requires the appropriate base armor piece as a component. We intend for this to be the first step in supplying players with explicit visual variety in crafted armor. I'll leave the details for you guys to explore in the world!
The culture armor recipes drop off lore-appropriate bosses in endgame group dungeons, group social dungeons, or ACGs.
Alchemy
Resources
We have reduced the number of the alchemy resources in the game by about two thirds. This means existing recipes have been remapped. This change is currently not on test live (it's a big one!), but our target for this is still update 3. The removed resources will remain in banks and inventories, but will no longer be dropped nor will they be consumed. In the course of releasing new recipes if we find we also need new resources, we will pull from the pool of removed resources. We realize for those players which have stockpiled large stacks of alchemy mats that this change may be unfortunate, but we felt it was necessary in order to move forward with the system.
Having fewer resources solves a number of problems, such as bag space issues and the low statistical probability of any specific resource dropping. The reduced set of resources may be found dropping off mobs, in a variety of different types of caches, or obtained from resource nodes where appropriate. In addition, a small number have been marked as green or blue, to give players an indication of relative worth.
As an added boon to alchemists, the yield of food/potion recipes has been increased. We are currently evaluating new potions types with various effects, so keep an eye out for this in later patches.
Metallurgy
Metallurgy recipes which make alloys will drop off specific dungeon bosses, and be available to Alchemists. Currently, alloys are required by smiths for culture armors and culture weapons but this may be expanded in the future.
Skinning
6 new recipes for skinners have been added to the game. These treated skins are consumed by the new culture armors.
Weaving
6 new recipes for weavers have been added to the game. The cloth yielded by these recipes is consumed by the new culture armors.
Wood Cutting
New recipes for wood-cutters have been added to the game. The recipes drop off specific solo bosses in adventure zones. They yield equipable green staffs that weaponsmiths may upgrade into blue staffs. The upgraded staves use normal feat progression, but do not require city buildings to make.
Moving Forward
Just so Architects and Gem-cutters don't feel left out, I'll say a bit about them. Since these professions are heavily tied to Massive PvP and item balance respectively, improvements for those professions need to be bundled with existing planned upgrades to those systems. Those upgrades will happen a couple patches down the line, and that's when Architects and Gem-cutters should see some love.
Progression Items
We are aware that weaponsmith and armorsmith progression items, needed to advance through the profession tier system, were rendered largely irrelevant by the gem nerf. Gems are getting rebalanced as part of a greater initiative, and we are currently working on this internally. With the gem re-balance down the road, we will see progression weapons and armors modified to fit with those changes and provide players with greatly increased usefulness. We feel that alchemist progression items (food and potions) likewise have a narrow range of utility, and this is also being examined.
Tradeskill Resources
All tradeskill resources have had their valid drop level range widened. Combined with the alchemy resource reduction, this should provide players with a greatly increased opportunity to gather the resources needed for recipes. R&B playfields have also been modified to reflect these changes (and make more sense in general), and the resource drop rates off mobs in those playfields have been slightly increased.
Crafting Changes Layed-Out.
Thanks for posting. Sometimes makes my job easier. 
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