» Fri Jul 20, 2012 9:22 pm The Good
Crafting has always been about taking resources from the game and utilizing them to greater effect. Whether it is a weapon YOU made that you are now rocking faces with or a potion YOU made that just saved your life, crafting just feels good. Plus, outside of ownership, it is also a good RP device (my old character was a smith and healer's son, so he knew alchemy and smithing to fit that). So, although I am going to attack crafting, it is not because I have anything against crafting itself, it is just the implementation that is... well, tricky to navigate. It isn't broken, but it could be a lot better.
The Bad
Do not put points into every crafting tree. Do not fill all the crafting trees. Here's why. I always start off with smithing, even when I say I'm not going to put points into it, I inevitably do, because it is very rewarding to make your own gear and then improve it and essentially use the same piece of gear throughout the game (plus I like steel armor and it makes it viable). Eventually, you will max out smithing and then you will have gear that is unenchanted. Problem is, enchanted gear is pretty useful in its own right, so you will inevitably be tempted to put points into enchanting. When you do, you will have to spend 8 of them to get the double enchant perk and also to make sure your enchants are epic enough to be worthy of your awesome gear. You will also be tempted to invest in enchanting I think because of the ability to name your enchanted gear. I find this to be one of the largest draws for enchanting, because it just enchances the overall ownership of your stuff.
So now you have some EXTREMELY powerful gear. Gear that is more powerful and useful than any daedric artifact or quest weapon you will ever get. Ever. This is where the problems occur. You have now essentially destroyed any reason to go looking in any cave or hideout you could have, besides just RPing purposes or spelunking. You have also rendered all these sweet looking items practically useless, compared to what you could be using. I know you can improve daedric gear, but unless you are enchanting gear and using pots, it won't be as powerful (even with that stuff). This is another problem. If you look into alchemy at all, you see that you can make potions to make your smithing and enchanting even better. You can enchant gear to make your alchemy better and it just becomes a vicious circle.
Spoiler
I think Bethesda knows this too, because if you look at quest gear you get, they all seem to have very unique secondary effects anymore. For instance, gear that reduces damage specifically for Vampire's, or Auriel's Bow which has a very unique sun ability. They realize that crafting has kind of made gear that USED to be highly prized practically useless. I was kind of hoping they might have a solution for that in Dawnguard, but it looks like I will have to keep hoping.
My Advice
I won't say don't use crafting, that is stupid, and honestly no one will do that. However, if I were you, I would try not to max out any crafting tree. At the very least, don't max out Enchanting, it has a tendency to lead into game breaking temptation. Alchemy is ok to max out, as at max (without any enchants to improve it) it is pretty decently balanced. Smithing is good too, but if you want to use a specific set of armor, all the points you put into it could just be a huge waste. Overall, just try to be smart about what you do with crafting, because perks are permanent. And once you've built your guy up into a super crafter you can't go back. If you think that is fun, then I encourage you to continue with it, but for all those wondering, I would strongly suggest you be conservative with your perk points when it comes to crafting. I will list some tips below in a spoiler tag for any that are curious, thanks for reading!
Spoiler
The biggest draw to smithing is the fact that a lot of endgame gear can be a righteous pain to obtain. By this I mean Daedric and Dragon gear. Now, contrary to what you might think, it WILL drop in random loot, just barely ever. If you don't want to invest in smithing, you can't feasibly get Dragon gear, however, you can get Daedric. Get conjuration to 90 and do the master quest in the Mage's Guild. You can get the Sigil Stone, which will allow you to use the Atronach forge to make Daedric gear. Look http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Atronach_Forge.
For enchanting purposes, none of it really becomes game breaking unless you really abuse it. By that I mean taking the doulbe enchant perk. None if the random loot will ever have two enchants, so taking this perk makes your gear superior by default, and even daedric gear and special quest items generally don't have two enchants (maybe powerful versions of enchants, but still only one). If you want to utilize enchanting, my personal advice would be to put the five points into improving new enchants and then just leave it alone.
Alchemy is actually pretty safe to use. To be absolutely effective with it, you need to sink in 12 to 13 points, which is a huge investment. However, it may very well be worth it if you don't use restoration or if you burn through mana a lot. It is tempting to use enchanting and alchemy together to make super potions, but I would advise against it, especially if your alchemy is maxed. You will end up making resist potions with a 90% effect, which is just overpowered, but it does make your heatlh/magicka/stamina potions on par with Extreme potions, so in that sense it isn't bad. Still, potions are pretty powerful just being enhanced by your skills, so I wouldn't think you would NEED to use gear to boost the improvement. If you do, just use maybe 50% improvement.
For enchanting purposes, none of it really becomes game breaking unless you really abuse it. By that I mean taking the doulbe enchant perk. None if the random loot will ever have two enchants, so taking this perk makes your gear superior by default, and even daedric gear and special quest items generally don't have two enchants (maybe powerful versions of enchants, but still only one). If you want to utilize enchanting, my personal advice would be to put the five points into improving new enchants and then just leave it alone.
Alchemy is actually pretty safe to use. To be absolutely effective with it, you need to sink in 12 to 13 points, which is a huge investment. However, it may very well be worth it if you don't use restoration or if you burn through mana a lot. It is tempting to use enchanting and alchemy together to make super potions, but I would advise against it, especially if your alchemy is maxed. You will end up making resist potions with a 90% effect, which is just overpowered, but it does make your heatlh/magicka/stamina potions on par with Extreme potions, so in that sense it isn't bad. Still, potions are pretty powerful just being enhanced by your skills, so I wouldn't think you would NEED to use gear to boost the improvement. If you do, just use maybe 50% improvement.
