Crafting

Crafting, introduced with Module 6, is a new way to create customized items, using ingredients gathered both in the Vale Explorer Area, the new Vale quests, and The Shroud raid. In each of these areas, chests may contain Ingredient items, usually denoted with a Purple Background, and can all be gathered into the new Ingredient Bags.

A DDO Crafting Primer
Crafting, as currently implemented in DDO is all about ingredients and recipes. There are no skills, feats, or level-ups required, just farming for ingredients and the putting them together through the upgrade process to make and upgrade items and weapons. For most of the crafting, access to Meridia, Tier 1 Favor with The Twelve (40 Favor), and completion of all 5 Pre-Raid quests in the Vale are required.

Crafting that is available to all characters
The most basic level of crafting is available to all characters with access to the Marketplace or The Twelve. Next to the Marketplace Bank, and right outside the Twelve's Tower is found the Stone of Change. The Stone of Change is used to upgrade existing items (those not part of the Green Steel "Raid" Loot, as described below). Currently there are only 3 recipes enabled for the Stone of Change, but the developers have stated that this will change in the future.

The currently enabled Stone of Change recipes allow you to Bind & Attune your items, so it no longer takes permanent damage, or increase the durability and hardness of an item, or convert Dragon shards. These are simple upgrades, and for the full recipes see Stone of Change - Recipes

Getting ready for the "Raid Loot" Crafting
The major portion of Crafting in DDO is the new "Raid Loot" system, which is also referred to as the Green Steel Items. Green Steel Items are "blanks" that are manufactured, then upgraded through a series of crafting steps in The Shroud, the new Raid area. Preparing, or 'flagging', for the new raid requires a few steps, outlined below.

You are now flagged for the Raid, and ready to start the real Crafting
 * 1) Go to The Twelve, and speak to Gustavine Kyerrh. He will give you the quest to find Meridia
 * 2) While in The Twelve, speak to Jeanselme Brucetius to receive a Small Ingredients Bag. You can purchase a Medium Ingredients Bag in House Phiarlan or The Portable Hole
 * 3) Exit the Tower of The Twelve, and go to the upper North-East corner to enter The Vale.
 * 4) Explore The Vale until you locate Meridia, the town within The Vale. Rest, Repair, Bind, and speak to all the NPC's to advance your Quest.
 * 5) You must now complete the 5 Pre-Raid Quests and collect the Shavarath Stone in the end chest from each of these quests. The quests are The Coalescence Chamber, Let Sleeping Dust Lie, Rainbow in the Dark, Ritual Sacrifice, Running with the Devils. At the chest at the end of each quest, each party member will receive a Shavarath Stone of Battle, Foresight, Might, Strategy, or Victory.  Make sure you keep these Shavarath Stone items
 * 6) Once you have completed all 5 quests, you should have your Tier 1 The Twelve Favor. Go back to The Twelve and get your favor reward, access to the Eldritch Device in Meridia.
 * 7) Travel back to Meridia, speak to the Grandmaster to advance your quest and grant you Raid Access.
 * 8) Now, go to the NPC outside the Eldritch Chamber in the center of Meridia, and start her quest of Eldrich Device Tutorial.
 * 9) You now have access to the Altar of Fecundity in Meridia, and you can now begin crafting. In order to complete "Chapter1: The Nature of Eldritch" of the quest, take all 5 items she gave to you (Chunk of Shavarath Dirt, Gnoll Whittled Branch, Polished White Marble Stone, Spider Spun Thread and Special Energy Cell) and place them in the Altar of Fecundity. Mix Magically to get a Glowing Orb (looks like the Festival Twig). Bring this back to her.
 * 10) Your quest should be advanced to "Chapter2: Stones of Shavarath" now, take all 5 of the Shavarath Stones and do the same to get a Shavarath Signet Stone - This Stone is a key ingredient to make your Green Steel Item.
 * 11) If the Grandmaster does not advance your quest at this point, be certain you have collected your end rewards from each of the five quests. You have not actually "completed" the quest until you collect your reward.

Ok, I am flagged for the Raid, Now What?
Now that you have access to the Raid, it is time to really start Crafting. Along the way in The Vale and the 5 Pre-Raid Quests, you will have collected some Ingredients. Remember that all the Ingredients you get out of chests are considered "Tier 1 Ingredients" or Basic Ingredients. They must be combined together, using the recipes, to create a "Tier 2 Ingredient" or a Manufactured Ingredient. Then these Manufactured Ingredients combine together to create an item.

Additionally, there are different Altars to use for different pieces of the Crafting. Underneath Meridia is the Altar of Fecundity. The Altar of Fecundity is used to combine the Ingredients collected in The Vale and the Pre-Raid Quests, as well as the Shavarath Stones, to create your Green Steel Item, or your "blank" to upgrade later. Within the Raid, there are 3 additional Altars, each of which use different Ingredients in a similar manner.

The Basic Crafting Process for the Altar of Fecundity is Tier 1 Ingredients --> Tier 2 Ingredients --> Green Steel Item. This means that first you will combine the Tier 1 Ingredients from the Vale, using the Altar of Fecundity - Tier 1 - Ingredients Recipes, to create your Tier 2 Ingredients. You will then combine the Tier 2 Ingredients with your Shavarath Signet Stone using the Altar of Fecundity - Tier 2 - Green Steel Recipes to create a Green Steel Item.

'''Warning: You cannot equip more than one Green Steel Clothing Item at this time (Weapons do not count). Doing so will cause you to take damage every few seconds until you die. If you receive a Raise Dead, or Release your Soul, you will likely die almost immediately after coming back to life. This is due to the Taint of Shavarath on the item, which must be cleansed. It is not known at this time how to do this. You can freely dual-wield weapons, and wear a single clothing item.'''

Once you run The Shroud and begin to collect the various Tier 1 Ingredients within the Raid, you can then begin to combine these ingredients, per the recipes, to add effects and enhancements to your Green Steel Weapon or Clothing. There are 3 categories of Ingredients within The Shroud, Small, Medium, and Large. The "Small" Ingredients are used at the Altar of Invasion, at the end of Stage 1. The "Medium" Ingredients are used at the Altar of Subjugation, at the end of Stage 3, and the "Large" Ingredients are used at the Altar of Devastation, at the end of Stage 5.

Likewise, each altar requires a Shavarath Energy Cell, which comes in Low, Medium, and High. Just like the Ingredients, Low is for Invasion, Medium is for Subjugation, and High is for Devastation. However, the Medium and High Energy Cells are usually found or purchased "Depleted". In order to charge a Depleted Energy Cell, you must use an item in your inventory to "charge" the Energy Cell. As you examine the items in your inventory, each of them will display a large number in the upper-right-hand-corner, this is referred to as the Plus Value. In order to Recharge a Depleted Energy Cell, you must combine the Energy Cell with an item whose Plus Value is +6 through +10. WARNING: THE ITEM IS DESTROYED IN THE PROCESS. This will charge your Shavarath Energy Cell for use.

You also need the appropriate Shard of Power. There are, again, three levels of these Shards, Shard of Power, Shard of Great Power, and Shard of Supreme Power. Each is used at the appropriate Altar. The Shard of Power is combined, with the Tier 2 Ingredients, to create an Imbued Shard of Power.

Finally, you combine your Imbued Shard of Power, a Shavarath Energy Cell and your Green Steel Item to add effects to your item.

Inside the Raid, the Crafting process is as follows:
 * 1) Combine the Tier 1 Ingredients and a Shavarath Energy Cell to create Tier 2 Ingredients
 * 2) Combine the Tier 2 Ingredients, a Shavarath Energy Cell, and a Shard of Power to create an Imbued Shard of Power
 * 3) Combine the Imbued Shard of Power, a Shavarath Energy Cell, and a Green Steel Item to upgrade your Green Steel Item

Notes on how the upgrades work
A Green Steel Item can be upgraded one time at each Altar, and it will add the properties listed in the appropriate recipe to that item. Most of these abilities will stack, but not all of them. Remember that Enchantment, Resistance, Insight, and Regeneration Bonuses do NOT stack. Exceptional Bonuses will stack, as long as they are not identical. A +1 Charisma (Exceptional Bonus) will stack with a +2 Charisma (Exceptional Bonus) for a total of +3 Charisma. But a +1 Charisma (Exceptional Bonus) will not stack with another +1 Charisma (Exceptional Bonus).

There are also Special Properties that can be added at the Subjugation and Devastation Altars, depending on the combination of upgrades that are performed. For example, if you use an "Essence of Positive Energy" at Invasion, and then again at Subjugation, you will get the Aspect of Positive Energy, and True Resurrection 1/day on your item. If you use Positive again at Devastation, you will get Greater Disruption on a Weapon or Greater Disruption Guard on Clothing, but if you used a different Essence, you may get a different effect, or none at all. You will always receive the bonuses listed for the recipes, but the "Special" Bonuses for the combinations are still being discovered.

Planning for your Crafted Item
The best thing to do is to plan ahead, and research what you want to upgrade. For an example, say you want to craft a pair of Goggles, and go for Spell Points and +Charisma Skills. This means that you want to go with Air/Escalation/Ethereal or Positive/Escalation/Ethereal, as both will give you the same base results. Let's also say that you decide that you like the Greater Disruption Guard, so we will go Positive/Escalation/Ethereal at all 3 Altars. So, it's time to look over the lists, and create your list of required Tier 1 Ingredients:

So we first look at Altar of Fecundity - Tier 2 - Green Steel Recipes and work our way backwards. Green Steel Goggles require Filament of Toil, Violet Taper, Wondrous Balm, Signet Stone, and an Ebberon Power Cell. Some of the Tier 2 Recipes can be made more than one way, so there some items will have varying amounts needed.… so we then look at Altar of Fecundity - Tier 1 - Ingredients Recipes to create our Ingredient List of:
 * 3x Locus Husk
 * 3x Lammanian Lily Petals
 * 2 or 3x Glistening Pebbles
 * 2 or 3x Green Brier Twig
 * 1x Chipmunk Funk
 * 1x Bittersweet Fungi
 * 4x Ebberon Power Cell

Once these are all collected, go to the Altar of Fecundity underneath Meridia, and start combining your Tier 1 Ingredients to create the required Tier 2 Ingredients. Then take the Filament of Toil, Violet Taper, and Wondrous Balm, along with your Signet Stone and a Ebberon Power Cell, put them together, Mix Magically, and you will have your Green Steel Goggles.

Now, it is time to start running the Raid and collecting your Tier 1 Ingredients for the 3 Altars. Positive/Escalation/Ethereal will require the following Ingredients:
 * 2x Small Arrowhead
 * 1x Small Gnawed Bone
 * 2x Small Length of Infernal Chain
 * 3x Small Devil Scale
 * 1x Small Twisted Shrapnel
 * 3x Small Sulfurous Stone
 * 5x Shavarath Low Energy Cell
 * 1x Shard of Power

Use these to create Inferior Focus of Positive Energy, Cloudy Gem of Escalation, and Diluted Ethereal Essence. Take these 3 Tier 2 Ingredients, along with a Shard of Power and a Shavarath Low Energy Cell to imbue the Shard of Power with the Positive/Escalation/Ethereal mix. Then finally put the Imbued Shard of Power, a Shavarath Low Energy Cell, and your Green Steel Goggles in the Altar of Invasion, and they should now called Lieutenant Green Steel Goggles of Wizardry VI. Upon examination, it should have Wizardry VI, Charisma Skills - Exceptional Bonus +1, and Positive Energy Affinity.

Now, follow the same ingredient list above, but using Medium ingredients at the Subjugation Altar, and then Large Ingredients at the Devastation Altar to create your Supreme Tyrant Green Steel Goggles of Positive Energy with Wizardry VI, Charisma Skills -Exceptional Bonus +1, +2, and +3 (for +6 total), Elemental Spell Power (+50 SP), Greater Elemental Spell Power (+100 SP), True Resurrection 1/day, and Greater Disruption Guard!

VERY IMPORTANT: Each Altar has it's own recipes and results, and the results will add to your Green Steel Item as you upgrade it, once at each Altar. Different upgrades will simply add their effects to your item, not replace earlier ones, and they will likely interact with each other in interesting ways, providing additional effects on your item.

Also note that, while Green Steel items are Bound on Equip when created, upgrading a Green Steel item at an altar within the Shroud will bind the item to the crafter.

Stormreach - Stone of Change
Stone of Change - Recipes

Meridia - Altar of Fecundity
Altar of Fecundity - Tier 1 - Ingredients Recipes Altar of Fecundity - Tier 2 - Green Steel Recipes
 * Step #1 - Combine Shavarath Stones of Might (Ritual Sacrifice), Battle (Running with the Devils), Strategy (Let Sleeping Dust Lie), Foresight (Rainbow), and Victory (The Coalescence Chamber) together to create a Shavarath Signet Stone
 * Step #2 - Use Recipes for "Tier 1 Ingredients": Bitterscrub Fungus, Chipmunk Funk, Glistening Pebbles, Green Briar Twigs, Lammanian Lily Petals, Locus Husk together with an Ebberon Energy Orb to create a "Tier 2 Ingredient"
 * Step #3 - Use Recipe for "Tier 2 Ingredients": Ore of Travail, Filament of Toil, Wondrous Balm, Wondrous Oil, Wondrous Jewel, Wondrous Scarab, Red Taper, Yellow Taper, Green Taper, Blue Taper, Violet Taper together with a Shavarath Signet Stone to create a Green Steel Item

The Shroud, Part 1: The Gauntlet - Altar of Invasion
Altar of Invasion - Tier 1 - Ingredients Recipes Altar of Invasion - Tier 2 - Green Steel Item Recipes
 * Step #1 - Use Recipes for "Tier 1 Ingredients": Small Devil Scales, Small Glowing Arrowhead, Small Gnawed Bone, Small Length of Infernal Chain, Small Sulfurous Stones, Small Twisted Shrapnel together with a Shavarath Low Energy Cell to create a "Tier 2 Ingredient".
 * Step #2 - Use Recipes for "Tier 2 Ingredients": Inferior Focus of Fire, Inferior Focus of Air, Inferior Focus of Water, Inferior Focus of Earth, Inferior Focus of Positive Energy, Inferior Focus of Negative Energy, Diluted Material Essence, Diluted Ethereal Essence, Cloudy Gem of Opposition, Cloudy Gem of Domination, Cloudy Gem of Escalation together with a Shavarath Low Energy Cell, and a Shard of Power to create an Imbued Shard of Power
 * Step #3 - Combine Imbued Shard of Power with Shavarath Low Energy Cell and Green Steel Item to upgrade your Green Steel Item

The Shroud, Part 3: The Puzzles - Altar of Subjugation
Altar of Subjugation - Tier 1 - Ingredients Recipes Altar of Subjugation - Tier 2 - Green Steel Item Recipes
 * Step #1 - Combine Depleted Shavarath Medium Energy Cell with a weapon, with a listed value of +6 to +10 to create a Shavarath Medium Energy Cell, as needed. WARNING: Item is consumed (destroyed) in this process!
 * Step #2 - Use Recipes for "Tier 1 Ingredients": Medium Devil Scales, Medium Glowing Arrowhead, Medium Gnawed Bone, Medium Length of Infernal Chain, Medium Sulfurous Stones, Medium Twisted Shrapnel together with a Shavarath Medium Energy Cell to create a "Tier 2 Ingredient".
 * Step #3 - Use Recipes for "Tier 2 Ingredients": Focus of Fire, Focus of Air, Focus of Water, Focus of Earth, Focus of Positive Energy, Focus of Negative Energy, Material Essence, Ethereal Essence, Gem of Opposition, Gem of Domination, Gem of Escalation together with a Shavarath Medium Energy Cell, and a Shard of Power to create an Imbued Shard of Power
 * Step #4 - Combine Imbued Shard of Power with Shavarath Medium Energy Cell and Green Steel Item to upgrade your Green Steel Item

The Shroud, Part 5: The Boss - Altar of Devastation
Altar of Devastation - Tier 1 - Ingredients Recipes Altar of Devastation - Tier 2 - Green Steel Item Recipes
 * Step #1 - Combine Depleted Shavarath High Energy Cell with a weapon, with a listed value of +8 to +10 to create a Shavarath High Energy Cell, as needed. WARNING: Item is consumed (destroyed) in this process!
 * Step #2 - Use Recipes for "Tier 1 Ingredients": Large Devil Scales, Large GHighing Arrowhead, Large Gnawed Bone, Large Length of Infernal Chain, Large Sulfurous Stones, Large Twisted Shrapnel together with a Shavarath High Energy Cell to create a "Tier 2 Ingredient".
 * Step #3 - Use Recipes for "Tier 2 Ingredients": Superior Focus of Fire, Superior Focus of Air, Superior Focus of Water, Superior Focus of Earth, Superior Focus of Positive Energy, Superior Focus of Negative Energy, Pure Material Essence, Pure Ethereal Essence, Perfect Gem of Opposition, Perfect Gem of Domination, Perfect Gem of Escalation together with a Shavarath High Energy Cell, and a Shard of Power to create an Imbued Shard of Power
 * Step #4 - Combine Imbued Shard of Power with Shavarath High Energy Cell and Green Steel Item to upgrade your Green Steel Item