Best skill combination if you want to focus on crafting?

[otakon17]

I mean besides Blacksmithing, Alchemy, Wand Lore and Tinkerer? I'm thinking Perception because of Lucky/Luckier/Luckiest Find but what else can be of use if you really want to be able to craft stuff in the game?

[intok]

My "Antonio Stark" build is quite good at crafting:
Clockwork Knight, Rouge Scientist, Perception, Crossbows, Smithing, Tinkering and Alchemy

It's heavily crafting capable with Clockwork and Rouge giving boosts that allow you access to the top end recipies as well as give you a great arsenal of combat skills.

You can use fungal arts to make mushrooms if you like, combined with alchemy will let you make more potions or take them directly.

[Haldurson]

Besides the crafting skills themselves, all of the following have some kind of synnergy with one or more crafting skills:
Clockwork Knight, Rogue Scientist, Paranormal Investigator, Piracy, Fungal Arts, Burglary, Perception, Thrown Weapons, Archery, Archaeologist

[otakon17]

Originally posted by Haldurson:

Besides the crafting skills themselves, all of the following have some kind of synnergy with one or more crafting skills:
Clockwork Knight, Rogue Scientist, Paranormal Investigator, Piracy, Fungal Arts, Burglary, Perception, Thrown Weapons, Archery, Archaeologist

Synergy is good but really I'm looking for skills that help boost mat drops since due to the random nature of the game you could be a level 6 Blacksmith and never get more than a single steel ingot if you're really unlucky.

So, at this point I figure a simple but decent Crafter build would be:

Clockwork Knight
Blacksmith
Perception
Rogue Scientist
Tinkering

And probably a weapon skill, not sure for the 7th though...

[Haldurson]

The skills that boost mat drops are Perception for general boost to drops, Piracy for gems, Rogue Scientist for Alchemical Ooze, and Fungal Arts for various fungi (which are used in alchemy). And Burglary should enable you to loot the occasional crafting mat for free from any crafting vending machines. That's basically it.

Note that with perception alone, assuming you boost it all or most of the way, should give you more than enough steel ingots for your crafting needs. That is, unless you play with "No Time to Grind", in which case it's a crap shoot.

I've beaten the game with pure crafting builds on GR/PD with or without mods more than once. When I say 'pure' crafting, I mean no namby pamby weapons skills, just every crafting skill and only additional skills that synergize with crafting. (Btw, what you said 'that they give more mats, that's a synnergy).

For example, try the following:
Blacksmith, Tinkering, Alchemy, Wand Lore, Perception, Clockwork Knight, Paranormal Investigator.
You'll want to get Perception to the last or second to last skill, Paranormal Investigator up to Alien Autopsy, and eventually max out Clockwork Knight, adding points to the other skills as needed or desired (remember that it's wasteful to raise blacksmith or tinkering skill above 7, maybe 8 depending on mods, so don't put too many points there -- take your increases from CK, which gives you the combat skills you need).

Generally speaking, I mostly take Wand Lore for the theme of it, but you can drop Wand Lore realistically and substitute something like Burglary or Fungal Arts or Piracy. CK+RS together is kind of wasteful. You can substitute RS for CK. But that's up to you.

[sniggleboots]

I feel like I should comment on my own personal twist on a "crafting skill"; lutefisking a whole load of junk, and hoping you get decent artifact gear from the lutefisk statues. (It's arguably crafting! Don't tell me how to live my life!!1)

Big Game Hunter, Fungal Arts, Piracy and Perception are great skills for that kind of "crafting". Big Game Hunter has a Butchery proc that drops an assortiment of meats, which can be further ground up before feeding them into your cube, for additional lutefisk. Perception procs random junk dropping, which can be 'fisked, same for Fungal Arts and Piracy. If you want, you can take Tinkering too, so you get more ingots from one ore, and more arrows from one ingot, to further increase the 'fisking efficiency. If you dual wield The Little Red Cookbook and the Hunter's Whirling Dagger to further increase the Butchery proc chances, your meat input, and thusly your lutefisk output, will be through the roof. You'll run out of statues :v

[Haldurson]

BTW, one thing I should emphasize -- DO NOT underestimate the power of Alchemy. I saw that your original crafting build neglected that skill, so that's the main reason why I'm saying that. A lot of people think that Alchemy is mostly for the healing and mana potions -- not true at all. It has so much more than that (particularly, but not exclusively for casters and staff users). Some of the best thrown weapons for dealing with monster zoos are craftable with Alchemy, for example. Potions of invisibility to last you the whole game are no problem once you build Alchemy up to the point where you can transmute gems. And don't forget about potions of purity and the encrusts.

[otakon17]

Originally posted by LL ๖ۣۜGorbax:

I feel like I should comment on my own personal twist on a "crafting skill"; lutefisking a whole load of junk, and hoping you get decent artifact gear from the lutefisk statues. (It's arguably crafting! Don't tell me how to live my life!!1)

Big Game Hunter, Fungal Arts, Piracy and Perception are great skills for that kind of "crafting". Big Game Hunter has a Butchery proc that drops an assortiment of meats, which can be further ground up before feeding them into your cube, for additional lutefisk. Perception procs random junk dropping, which can be 'fisked, same for Fungal Arts and Piracy. If you want, you can take Tinkering too, so you get more ingots from one ore, and more arrows from one ingot, to further increase the 'fisking efficiency. If you dual wield The Little Red Cookbook and the Hunter's Whirling Dagger to further increase the Butchery proc chances, your meat input, and thusly your lutefisk output, will be through the roof. You'll run out of statues :v

The Lutefisk God has forsaken me, I shall never turn to it's cold unfeeling scales again!

But yeah, been getting some good feedback.

So, next time: Crafty

Blacksmithing
Tinkerer
Alchemy
Perception
Piracy
Clockwork Knight
Rogue Scientist

Should prove interesting assuming I live long enough to see it to fruition.