Only played the guest pass, but I thought crafted gear was tradeable, at the very least between your own characters. Give str gear to your barbarian and keep crafting until you get good stuff. I got lucky and got dexterity/life regen pants on the first try on my monk. They were also 33 armor at a time when all I was finding lying around was 16 armor, so at level 10 it seems worthwhile (especially as I didn't see anything else to spend gold on).

Hubble

Germany248 Posts

May 21 2012 14:10 GMT

I spend 800k on the blacksmith and the gain was very low. But I think there are legendary recipes dropping in hell and inferno which require a high blacksmith skill. I found one legendary recipe for a axe (ok, the Axe sucked...). So the investment MAY be worth it... some day

wheelchairs

United States145 Posts

May 21 2012 14:12 GMT

i have spent all of my money so far leveling blacksmith and jeweler both, jeweler is cheap to max out, the blacksmith takes forever, Im making some very nice rares with a lot of mods 1/2 way through NM right now. It allows you to make rares for the only parts of your inventory that are lacking. If the mods you roll aren't good, just salvage and re-roll. I am going to max my blacksmith out and see what he can make in hell.

NotSorry

United States6722 Posts

May 21 2012 14:15 GMT

There are some very end game recipes that are worth it like some 6 mod gloves, but for the most part it's pretty worthless.

dukethegold

Canada5645 Posts

May 21 2012 14:32 GMT

It is not cost efficient at all to level up smith and jeweler till you reach somewhere around end game. Everything you can make from crafting, you can buy for cheaper from AH. Crafting has a place in the game as the highest level gems and some of the best gear can only be made through crafting. But for average joes, crafting just isn't worth it.

NotSorry

United States6722 Posts

May 21 2012 14:34 GMT

Yea would really wait to level it up til after inferno, use that gold you find on the way to get 1200dps 1handers

Tobberoth

Sweden6375 Posts

May 21 2012 14:36 GMT

I leveled them up immediately, but looking back, I would recommend only leveling jeweler (since it's really nice to be able to get a better gem from the crap you get early). The money spent on the blacksmith early on is better spent on merchants/AH to get better gear so you can get to the end of hell faster (at which point you make enough money to level blacksmith quite easily).

HQuality

2682 Posts

May 21 2012 16:22 GMT

don't recommend to crafting on normal-nightmare - better just sell (bad to vendors, good on AH) and then buy reagents
from hell u can start crafting, but even then it's not worth alot. From inferno you can go imo

lordofsoup

United States159 Posts

May 21 2012 19:04 GMT

#10

I did it, and the Only bright side of leveling it is that I can outfit my level 20 friends with great gear.

Tal0n

United States175 Posts

May 21 2012 19:11 GMT

#11

its similar to looking for drops i would think. there is a really low chance that you get something with amazing stats on it. however when you use the blacksmith, you can pick what item you want in exchange for gold.

but the best item you can possibly have is certainly going to come from a drop.

dsousa

United States1363 Posts

May 21 2012 19:18 GMT

#12

I think crafting would be worth it if it were not for the auction house. Trade makes it so its cheaper to get great gear from the AH because what is junk to you might be gold to someone else.

The gold cost to make each item at higher levels really hurts, because you can easily make 5 to 8 bad items in a row.

So now I'm leveling them, but not gambling on crafting gear, I'm just stockpiling mats.

Isualin

Germany1903 Posts

May 21 2012 19:24 GMT

#13

i think leveling them before hell is a waste of money. you can buy much better items with lower prices from GAH. and the funny thing is combining gems is more expensive than buying them from gah

KiF1rE

United States964 Posts

May 22 2012 00:29 GMT

#14

As far as items and investment go... Leveling the blacksmith and jeweler is a waste of time until inferno...

Heres why. The blacksmith costs will constantly keep your account poor, and you could just sell items etc etc. Im level 60 in inferno and leveled both the jeweler and blacksmith just to find out if it truly was worth it... And heres the short story its not until you get here... As only does crafting become worth it, when you start finding the level 60 rare/legendary plans to build. and simply dump all your trash into crafting one of those.Even then the higher level crafting is still expensive several thousand gold to craft an item that could be trash(but legendaries/rares could be better) as opposed to just killing something for a rare.... The jeweler combining is pointless, as simply put you can use the auction house and pick up the gem for less than the cost to combine, as the higher level gems drop later on like crazy just like the chipped, and its not worth spending hundreds to combine when for a cheaper price you could just buy the gem on the auction house. Im in inferno act 2 and i have stacks of flawless squares... However once you start getting higher i think they stop dropping and plans are needed, not sure. But all i know is i cant combine them to the higher stuff without the plans.

But the trick to finding out if the plans are worth it is key, as i cant find them lol... as they seem incredibly rare. and the ones that appear on the auction house cost several million... But the plans do guarantee some form of that item. Which is the only aspect of the auction house that may be worth it. Crafting legendaries and super rares(more affixes) seem worth it.

and that's the only opinion that i can give that could potentially make crafting worth it.

Vaelone

Finland4400 Posts

May 22 2012 06:01 GMT

#15

Both smithing and jewelcrafting seem like a total waste of money so far for me, Hell act 2. Stopped making items but still leveling them, not sure if I should stop that as well and just save the gold for AH.

But like people said there might be a treasure at the end of the rainbow, or not.

Velocirapture

United States983 Posts

May 22 2012 06:09 GMT

#16

The yime when i have loved my blacksmith is when making a new character. Having a steady supply of gear that is on point with level req makes the game way more fun to redo.

bgx

Poland6595 Posts

May 22 2012 06:15 GMT

#17

Its the equivalent of gambling from D2, you may get something good in the first tries but than youll level him up for 2 levels craft items 50 times and it will give u nothing.

If you already leveled him than you can sometimes try to craft something u need but if he has low level leave him be. I am 44 and i regret leveling him, AH is so much better and more cost efficient.

Zooper31

United States5712 Posts

May 22 2012 06:17 GMT

#18

Super early on in normal its worth it, and then don't bother crafting anything till Inferno with the plans that drop. Just train it up and don't make anything till Hell/Inferno. Same goes for salvaging, don't bother salvaging items till Hell/Inferno.

As for Jeweler, it's pretty meh and only worth it once you get super rare gem drop plans from Inferno, otherwise just use him to remove gems from equipment to replace with better ones that drop or you can buy for less than it costs to make.

Amui

Canada10567 Posts

May 22 2012 06:28 GMT

#19

There are achievement points for leveling the blacksmith. So leveling him is worthwhile. Actually crafting with him though is 99% of the time a huge gold sink except for very early on when it costs nothing, and endgame, where you can potentially craft endgame gear.

RaiZ

2813 Posts

May 22 2012 06:36 GMT

#20

Blacksmith just sucks for the sole reason of randomness. You may end up paying 10 times than what's the AH is worth. Jewelry is your only reliable source really.