Rift Crafting Guide: How to Make Cool Stuff in Rift

Rift Crafting Guide: How to Make Cool Stuff in Rift
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An Introduction to Rift Crafting

Crafting in Rift, the new MMO from Trion, isn’t all that different from crafting in many other MMOs. Rift is far more evolutionary than revolutionary in most aspects, and the crafting system makes this very obvious.

Characters in Rift can have three professions at any one time. You can have less, of course, but you can’t have more. These professions are split up across gather professions, which find raw materials, and crafting professions, which make use of those materials.

Gathering Professions

There are three gathering professions in Rift; butchery, foraging and mining.

Butchery turns dead animals into raw materials. You can kill them yourself, or simply scavage the bodies of dead animals that other players have killed but didn’t butcher. The hides from butchery that can then be used by the Outfitter profession to make leather armor, and are also required by the Armorsmith for use as padding in chain and plate armor. Also, you’ll sometimes find animal bones that the Apothocary profession can use.

Foraging lets you identify and pick up useful natural resources like wood and plants. These resources are littered across Telara and can be identifed on your radar. The plants that you pick up are the main resource used by the Apothocary profession to make potions, but the wood you pick up is also needed by the Artificer to create magical staves.

Mining implies digging deep for resources, but in Rift you’ll find mining nodes all over the place, even in long, flat plains. The metals found by miners are obviously of great use to the Armorsmith and Weaponsmith professions, but you will also sometimes find gems that are used by the Artificer profession to make magical rings and necklaces.

Although primarily used by for gathering, these professions also have attached skills that allow for refinement of the materials gathered. As you fine more valuable resources you’ll need a higher skill to collect them, and this happens by simply collecting resources.

Crafting Professions

Rift Crafting

Now that we’ve gone through the gathering professions, let’s talk about the ones that actually craft items. They’re as follows:

Apothocary - The potion maker, the Apothocary can create brews that improve stats, restore health and mana, and carry other special effects. Although perhaps not as glamorous as an Armorsmith, potions are not particularly cheap from vendors in Rift, so there is a definite place for this profession in the world. Apothocary mainly require resources from Butchery and Foraging.

Armorsmith - Self explanatory. Armorsmiths make armor, particularly chain and plate. Armorsmiths mainly require resources from Mining and Butchery.

Artificer - This profession crafts magic items like wands, staves and rings. Although of most direct use to mages and clerics, the Artificer can make jewerly with stats perfect for rogues and warriors. Artificers mainly require resources from Mining and Foraging.

Outfitter- A tailor who also makes leather armor, perfect for rogues and mages. Outfitters mainly rely on Butchery. Cloth drops used for mage armor are dropped by humanoid monsters.

Runecrafter - Runecrafters make enchantments that can be applied to items for stat bonuses. This profession is unique in that it doesn’t rely on any particular gathering profession - instead, the raw materials are gathered by runebreaking magical items.

Weaponsmith - These guys make all sorts of tools and instruments for hurting opponents. They rely on the Mining and Foraging gathering professions for raw materials.

Recommend Combinations

Now that you know all of the professions, you may be wondering which you should choose. Here are a few combinations of professions I recommend.

Butchery/Foraging/Apothocary - This is a good combination for making some extra money and keeping yourself supplied with potions. Keeping on top of your Apothocary profession will give you just one more trick up your sleeve. And while you do need some bones from Butchery, you can sell the hides on the auction house.

Mining/Butchery/Armorsmith OR Mining/Foraging/Weaponsmith - The Weaponsmith and Armorsmith professions make some of the coolest stuff in the game. Going down this path can be a long road, as both armor and weapons tend to take a lot of resources to make, but crafting your own epics is always a good feeling.

Butchery/Outfitter/Runecrafter - If you’re not all that interested in gathering, but you want to make stuff, this is a good option. The resources you need for Outfitter can be obtained during questing (just remember to loot opponents and butcher dead animals) and Runecrafter can be skilled up by trashing old magical items for their resources.

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