First of all, I would like to say that I am indeed a newbie who knows little to nothing about Lineage 2. I am currently trying to get established in this game and one of the questions that puzzles me the most is why do people buy basic material (animal bones, varnish, iron ore) and why people craft items instead of buying from NPC?
I do not know until what grade of items do npcs sell. If it does end at D grade then I can see why people craft items. From what I see, crafting takes way more money at lower levels than buying from npc.
So why do people pay so much for basic stuff and should I npc all the level 1 recipes I found?
yes, what you can buy from NPC's stops at D grade... basic materials are high becuase you nees thousands and thousands to craft HIGH lvl armor and weapons.
Mats rise in price because those who are crafting B+ gear are willing to pay for them as its still cheaper than paying player sell store prices. Im not sure D grade and non-grade items are really worth crafting.... especially not if you buy all of your mats. You can get mats from using the manor system. If you talk to the manor managed in the town your currently hunting at, he'll explain some of it. You can do a search on the boards for other manor related questions if you want.
As for recs... basic mat recs sell well. So leather, cokes, steel, braided hemp (Ive probably missed one or two). You can sell those to dorfs who need them... tho not at a huge price. Everything else you may as well sell to an npc.
Well, u can buy from NPC shops No grade, D grade till 2nd Top and from Giran Lux Store C grade low and 2nd Top, but not every item in th grade (for example, you can buy Brig Top/Bottom, but not Brig Helmet/Boots/Gloves/Shield, some items are drop only, some are craftable. All items >C grade are just drop/craft.
Ppl buy basic mats since you need a lot of em, really a lot. For your recipes, you can keep material recipes, but you can sell stuff like Forrest Bow or Leather Helmet and such.
Ah, that explains why people pay so much. Thanks a lot.
I am making a scavenger and artisan. I wonder if it is best to sell the ton of basic material (I assume mats = materials?) that I currently have to fuel my leveling, or to save this stuff to use later.
SAVE IT.. for the love of GOD save it!! I have a high lvl Bounty Hunter (scavenger) and Warsmith (artisan) and made the mistake when I first started playing (waaaaay back in beta) of selling my mats to other players.. BIG mistake. HUGE!
I use to sell my mats, my scav was my money maker. I bought some of my top D weapons that way. In fact if mats are at a crazy all time high, I sell every last one of them.
You can save mats from the day you start until the day you hit B grade (we're aiming low here ok?) and still not have half the amount you need to craft 1 sword. So don't even sweat it.
In my very first L2 days I was all the time mad cause I was gettin again and again "Dwarfen Items". I didnt know what to do with em and sold sold all to NPC >.<
I had also no idea what soul shots were ^.^ After I managed to get a Gladius (25k whoohoo!) from Gludio Market (the bigest market on the server ^^;;) I used 2 spiritshots but nothin happend and well, I thought crap and didnt used them from that point. Learned what they are around lvl 25...
That stuff dropped off krators and portas like crazy in prelude, and since I was an overpowered mage (or whatever, screw you melee) back then and solo'd 2 rooms in cruma, I got lots. then I npc'd it and bought a goathead staff.
The reason, imo, a new player shouldn't sell mats has nothing to do with saving them for your own crafts.
I think a newer player shouldn't sell mats because it is difficult for them to know the prices being offerred.
I remember starting and seeing that folks would buy a mat for a couple hundred over the shop/NPC price and thinking "that seems like a good deal".
There was no one to tell me that I had sold really cheaply.
If you have been around a bit and have a feel for prices then I think you CAN sell your mats if prices are insanely high.
Many players starting out in the past didn't get any clan support at low levels....basically you had to get to 40 or so before most clans would talk to you.
Perhaps with the new system players are getting picked up more quickly and have access to better advice from clanmates.
If you have 300 animal bone and it goes up to 2500 each, sell it.
You should probably not sell it for 500 in Gludin though!!!!!! There aren't THAT many mats, they stack nicely, and you don't need all your warehouse slots anyway for awhile.
I say "keep them" (until you know you're getting a fair price from other players).
B-grade weapons take thousands of mats--as Ellie said, you won't have enough when you get to 52 (and your warehouse WILL be full before that).
Sell spellbooks that are common, low grade 'pieces' for crafting (obviously not brig helm parts), echo crystals, and such to NPC's as soon as you get to town....again! Once you learn something about the market!
It would be shame to sell a recipe for D-Soulshot to an npc--you can easily get 50k for it or more in an overnight afk shop.
Learn the market! (learn the market)!!!!
crafting is my favorite part of the game, taking mats I already had or having to buy very little mats and making them into an item is a blast...except when you need enria then you cry.
OK, i have done part 1-Save your mats, and want to do part 2-Craft your B grade :-)
Let's start from jewlery, which seems simpler. Rings for example. Which ring would you suggest I (try to) craft? Is it possible to hunt a specific mob till it drops the recipe? Alternatively, what is a good price to pay for the recipe?
Now what is the rest of the procedure? I guess I will have to go to Giran. Do the prices in private creations vary a lot? Should I go around checking all private crafters? Maybe it would be better to buy twice the recipe and hand it over to a friendly crafter?
My first char was a crafter. He now makes all sorts of items for my lower level chars. It's saving me a fortune, and putting fabric/pattern drops to good use when i can sell the items i dont need for a decent profit.
@oytisLight........
Alot of the higher grade (c upwards) recipes are very hard to get solo, i guess you just have to balance the time spent trying to get the recipe against the cost of buying it. And 60% recipes are a very easy way of blowing your entire collection of materials, so unless you are wealthy, dont take the chance :)
Have a look at the Library, there are 2 options for Bgrade jewels, Adamantite Ring/Earring/Necklace (low B) and Black Ore Ring/Earring/Necklace (top B).
Whats the Library is Missing is Ring/Earring/Necklace of Blessing, equal mdef to Adamantite, that you can earn through a quest. But belive me, the quest is like hell and you can really do it solo at 53, even if ya would be a SH and not a SE.
Adamantite (low B jewels) is kind of hard to get I supose, I never really saw a craftshop for it and cant remember when or if I saw some parts in sell/buy shops. Its just crap, stick to ya c grade stuff untill you can manage to get Black Ore.
I dont know the prices on Teon, but Keyparts for BO go for around 5-10k on Sieg, most ppl just cary them to NPC shops. Ask some higher lvl clan/ally mates if they got some parts for ya or have a look into the clan wh. If ya got friends in another clan/ally with players higher than your clan/ally, ask them, theres a good chance you get the parts for free.
Recipes (100% ofc, noone really does 70% for BO I guess, maybe just to OE or if ya got a bunch to make some money or whatever) should be on the market for 50k-150k, but 150k is kind of overpriced. Craftshops should be there from 15k-50k, again 50k is way to overpriced (look at the craftshops right next to the guy doing Majestic crafts for 50k and ask yourself if ya wanne pay 50k for BO then ^.^)
For B grade I would just suggest top B grade, Black Ore!
Why you may ask? Because if you ever want your money back, or to make money this is pretty much the only thing that will sell on the market.
I forgot where I got my recipies from. A good place to start looking is your clan, lol.
Parts (don't remember if they were ring or earing) drop inside lvl 60ish catacombs (I know I know...high eh?) and I got lots of them from VoS. You can go to l2.stratics.com and try to find out what mobs drop it.
If you are going to buy the key mats and recipie, you will probally spend around 250k (depending on server market prices).
Jewels are the best thing to start...cause I know weapons make you pull out your hair.
When I crafted my SoV (after buying the rec and almost all the blades) it was still insane. But I craft BO jewels in my sleep! So far it is the only A grade I have attempted to craft...lol. (Majestic Jewels that is)
Whats the Library is Missing is Ring/Earring/Necklace of Blessing, equal mdef to Adamantite, that you can earn through a quest. But belive me, the quest is like hell and you can really do it solo at 53, even if ya would be a SH and not a SE.
Except the part where you have to be level.. 65ish to finish the quest.