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+1 Talk, Arfur

I would argue that one could consider Ryzom to be all about crafting with everything else supporting crafting. While some players hunt Named/Boss creatures just for fun, most do it for the mats they drop. Those who craft weapons often like Dolak skins (q260 max speed grip mats), and you aren't taking down a level 260 Named Plod unless you have at least a couple of skills well over 200.

The entire point of OP battles is to control the sole source of special mats that offer boosts that are otherwise unobtainable. There are no dug or looted mats that give increased chances of a critical hit or allow you to make crafting tools that can grant crafted items a buff to all stats, but a Rubbarn-boosted Tekorn weapon is superior to anything that can be made without any OP mats at all.

Nobody digs sups in PR unless they plan to craft some serious gear. Between nastier-than-surface mobs like Voraxes, the beloved Kitin Patrol, and PvPers trying to off you and dig the limited supply of Sups for themselves, even bringing bodyguards isn't enough to negate the need for high HP and decent resistances that only high-level toons have.

Of course, all Crafters are Diggers because the amount of mats needed to grind even one crafting skill to 250 is more than is feasible to hunt while grinding the five or six skills needed to craft full suits of armor and six more skills for jewels plus at least one weapon crafting skill... it goes MUCH faster then you pull 10-15 mats every 30 seconds like only a master digger can.

If you are a serious crafter, you'll want some Named/Boss mats, and you need some combat skills to get those too. At the very least, a master digger can easily make a node gas or explode for enough to kill those with low HP instantly, and fighting skills are the best way to buff HP enough to survive speed-digging. More likely, you will have enough levels as either a tank or a nuker to take down the big game and/or enough levels in healing to keep your teammates up while they deal damage.

In other words, you need melee to have the HP to survive digging or combat, you need magic (damage, heals, or both) to support your teammates in the fights for the good mats, and you need Forage to get the mats needed to grind Craft levels.

Crafters really do need to be good in all four areas. While there are a few that have made pure digger/crafters, those tend to die often when digging and are incapable of getting the really good mats (sups and boss mats) themselves except by trading. On the other hand, a crafter that has

As for the craft system itself, Arceuid's threads on crafting should be enough to show how deep it truly is. Even if you have the skills to gather whatever mats you desire, you still need to figure out recipes so you know which mats to use. Sure, Big Shell is great for damage, but it nerfs speed enough that you may want to try some other mat that you'll have to kill something rather large and nasty to get. The interactions between the mats makes crafting in Ryzom somewhere between science and art. Making a max damage spear is easy.... if you don't mind all the other stats being mediocre or worse. Try to make a max damage spear with at least 42 hits/minute and a decent Dodge modifer and you'll likley be digging in the bad parts of PR and going on a few hunting trips.