have to get mats 24/7?

Don't go out to farm mats.

Farm mats when you are out fighting monsters and happen to see them.

I ended up with about 60-80 of each apothecary mat, and about 40 of each mining mat, by level 10 just by picking them up when I passed them by on my mob quests. I've also gotten tons of the fur & oil type mat drops from monsters. More than enough to supply my main account that does the bulk of the crafting.

My main had level 3 of all crafting skills by level 25. It was no problem at all because I just grab them when I see them - I don't actively go looking. I do, however, know the best spots for the level one apothecary mats, so I'll divert my route a little if I know I'm in that area.

Craft items when you need them, or when you have enough extra mats to make equipment to sell. You should level your crafting skills just fine that way. It isn't the most important aspect of the game, after all. Just a supplement.

Sinew - Lost City wrote: »

you need minimum 15 0r 20 of some kind of material to craft just one thing of insignificant and unefficient Xp value to work towards the next tier of items able to be crafted.

...No, for level one you need one of one item, one of another, and one stone to craft items in the top row. Three items total. Tier 2 items sometimes need 1-4 or 2-8 of the first two items, and 1-4 stones. It gets a little more involved at Tier 3 because you need to make one of the mats from the ones you gather. At your level you shouldn't need more than 8-12 items TOTAL, not of each kind, unless you're talking about Apothecary Charms, which is quite different.

The cost involved and time involved is no hardship at all. I literally had 60 each of all four herbs after my first 5 hours playing, and I hadn't been actively Farming. Just picked them up when I was in the area killing mobs. Herbs & Mines are easy to find in the beginner areas around Plume, Etherblade, and Lost City. The level 2 herbs are everywhere around Archosaur and the surrounding quest areas, as are level 1 and 2 mines.

I spend a very minimal amount of my gameplay time gathering mats, and am only in a shortage sometimes for the Dropped ones like Rough Fur. But my barb is crazy good at getting those so my Wizard has plenty to work with now.

Women's work, huh? >.>

I gotta say, crafting is not for everybody and I like it that way. It takes a little extra time, but being able to make things that you can't buy is worth it. If you are not the "pack rat" type and do not enjoy the challange of inventory management then don't do it. I will be more than happy to craft things for you.......for a modest fee b:laugh Of course you could just go to cash shop if you're rolling in real world money. (I kind of consider that cheating though)

I was also able to hit level 3 on all crafts by just making detours to collect herbs and ores. LOOKING around once in a while for wood, saving all mat drops... that sort of thing. Plus once I was done with all level 1 mats I sold all my left overs for like 400,000. Priced them well below other cat shops and they were gone in one night.

Honestly though, if you're a big pvp type and can't wait to level up, then it's probably not your cup of tea.

I play two characters in Sanctuary; one is a veno, the other a cleric. The veno is a true warrior, the cleric is a crafter. My mood dictates which character I play at any time. If I feel the need to take out some aggression I play the veno for a while. If I need some down time, I play the cleric -- yesterday, for instance, I didn't want any conflict; so, I hunted for herbs, wood, and other mats for nearly 6 hours. Generally, every couple of days I'm in a mat hunting mood

Some players are hellbent on leveling up quickly as possible; this isn't my style with either character. I enjoy the fights, developing strategies against the different classes of monsters based on my characters' unique strengths and weaknesses, exploring, enjoythe scenery, and just existing in this alternative world.

With either character, when I'm on quests or just ranging, I always keep an eye out for mats. Part of the challenge is dropping in amongst a group of monsters 10 or more levels higher than me and snatching something. My cleric doesn't like to fight and it's her particular goal to gather materials without having to fight for them -- and she's good at plucking things undetected. Many of the NPCs can be "tricked" if you do a near-vertical drop on a sought item. The monsters know you're there, but they can't touch you -- this doesn't work for projectile-shooting monsters or any spider/scorpion-like creature.

Sorry for the ramble -- I don't post often, and this is why

Dark

Buy from AH/cat shops FTW! It's a hard concept to understand but it really does work.

1)Goto west Archosaur look around and check the different cat shops.
2)Find the one with the best price for the item you require.
3)Then buy as many of those items as you need.
4)If you run out of coins then you will have to go back to questing/farming/grinding till you have another 20-50k saved...
5)See step number 1!