⛏️Crafting

Professions are the crafting system of Neverwinter. Starting at level 8, you can accept the quest Workshop Opportunity from Sergeant Knox, which will get you started. There are 7 main professions, and the gathering profession. You will start with one profession of your choice and gathering, but you can practice and improve all professions simultaneously (as soon as you get an artisan for them).

Professions

Here are the main items you can craft with every profession:

• Alchemy: healing and buff potions, also supplements for crafting (useful for mastercraft).

• Armorsmithing: armors for Barbarians, Clerics, Fighters, and Paladins, as well as shields for Paladins and Fighters.

• Artificing: weapons for Clerics, Rangers, Warlocks, and Wizards.

• Blacksmithing: weapons for Barbarians, Fighters, Paladins, Rangers, and Rogues, and most of the tools for other professions.

• Jewelcrafting: rings, amulets and gemstones (for refinement points). Leatherworking: armors for Rangers, Rogues and Warlocks.

• Tailoring: armors for Wizards and belts.

Eventually, you can level up every single profession if you feel like it. And leveling many of them will actually be quite useful as most of the high level items require materials crafted with other professions.

There are two important things you should look at when crafting items : Proficiency and Focus. Proficiency is the first gauge, which gives you the probability of you succeeding on making an item. Focus is the second gauge, which gives you the probability of your item being +1 (of better quality, with better stats).

Artisans

A couple times a day, you will receive artisan applications. You can also use Zen to receive a new random application.

There are many very good common artisans, many very good rare artisans and many very good epic artisans, but there are also bad ones in every quality. Quality isn’t really a good appreciation of how good an artisan is (just like item level for players…).

The best artisans are those with the highest commission multiplier reduction (usually -75%, -50% in artificing) when making armor reinforcement kits. These require Astral Diamonds to craft, and the cost is reduced with proper artisans.

When leveling your professions, or when making gold, the best artisans are the ones with miracle worker (when using morale) and the highest speed multipler (when you’re not in the workshop). It’s of course better for your finances if they do not have a big commission multiplier.

The best artisans for crafting high end items (especially Masterwork) are the ones with the highest Dab Hand (when making materials) or Recycle (when making finished products). That said, Proficiency and Focus matter too. The goal is to maximize your chances to make an item (+1 if necessary), and to avoid losing materials which may be very expensive.

The complete list of artisans can be found here.

Tools

You can get a free set of beginner tools for every profession in a box behind the artisan’s counter. Higher level tools are made with different professions. You need a certain level in your profession to be able to use higher level tools. No reason to buy the best tools if you can't use them.

You also need different tools to gather different items with adventurers.

Proper tools make things way easier. The best tools you can craft are Cobalt+1 tools which give your artisans a 575 proficiency and focus bonus. These require your profession to be at level 80 for your artisans to use them.

There are also Legendary tools (which are random rewards from lootboxes). These only give a 550 proficiency and focus bonus to your artisans, but they also provide a +10% recycle effect, which means that you can avoid losing your materials up to 35% of the time when you fail making an item with an artisan who already provides 25% recycle. That is very useful when crafting Masterwork items for which you do not have a 100% chance of success. You need your profession to be at level 70 to be able to use a legendary tool.

But the very best tool is the Forgehammer of Gond. It is an artifact which lets you craft any item in the game and provides a bonus of 600 proficiency and focus to your artisans. It is better than a legendary tool if your proficiency is above 75% (that is if you use Wintergreen Balm +1 supplements to craft Masterwork items).