With the upcoming Corsair of Umbar Craft Guild release we want to provide some insight into how the new Umbar tier of Guilds will function and how it will eventually interact with previous guild tiers and alt crafters.

Joining the Umbar guild requires that you be an Honoured Master of a crafting Guild and then earn enough reputation with the guild to become an Umbar Guild Member. This is a departure from how we wanted to implement the new guild, but as we discussed previously, some old decisions with the crafting system provided a smooth way to excise the previous tiers and make the transition seamless. As a result, we are adding ways for you to move through into the Umbar Guild Member tier quickly.

Once you join the ranks of the Umbar Crafting Guild, you have access to guild recipes. These recipes allow for crafting gear, items, consumables, and more up to incomparable levels of items. You also unlock daily quests that require a recipe you can learn from the guild leader. It will not only earn you guild rank but also will count toward weekly rewards from the guild. Lastly, you gain access to creating new upgradable items available only to the craft guilds of Umbar.

Upgradable Items

Unlike standard craft guild items, this upgradable suite of items allows the crafter to make a baseline upgradable item and then trade that item freely to other players. That item may be a piece of equipment, a consumable item, or a persistent tool used in future recipes. Regardless of the type of item you are creating, you can advance the efficacy and strength of the item.

Guild members will have access to the following: recipes for baseline upgradable items, recipes for upgrade items attached to the various tiers of upgradable items, and recipes to create the 1-shot recipes needed to process the upgrades for each item tier.

The process differs from standard crafting, so we wanted to highlight the differences.

Recipes for crafting upgradable items are only available to the craft guilds and will require you to reach a certain tier within the guild before gaining access. Once learned, you will know the recipe and will never need to learn it again. All you need to do then I s gather the materials needed to make the baseline item, craft it, and then have the base item ready to trade or enhance on your own. These output items are all the same and can be traded freely throughout the game.

The base equipable item is uncommon, requires that a player equipping it is at least level 141. It has a single main stat essence slot, a generic essence slot, and a modest vitality enhancement inherent to the item. To craft the basic item, you will need a Luck Stone, and a small number of ingots. Please note that if the item you are crafting is jewellery, you will need a small number of polished gems.

Recipes to create the upgrade items will also be available through the craft guilds after reaching certain tiers. Once learned, you know these recipes, gather the items needed, in this case, the luck stone settings, and can make an upgrade item of the appropriate tier that can be freely traded to anyone in the game.

Each tier of the luck stone settings will require a luck stone to craft. The first-tier costs one, the second- tier costs two luck stones, and the third tier, you guessed it, requires three luck stones.

Recipes to create the 1-shot recipes that are needed to combine the current tier items with the enhancement item are also available through the craft guilds, and yes, you need to have the appropriate reputation to learn the recipes. Like the other recipes, once they are learned you know the recipe forever. The 1-shot recipes are tradable to anyone in the game.

To upgrade an item a player will need the following: an upgradable item, the upgrade item of the appropriate next rank, and the recipes to forge that new item.

For example: If I have an upgradable helmet that is currently tier 1, I would need the tier 2 upgrade item and a recipe to forge the tier 2 version of the helmet. The 1-shot recipe for upgrading the helmet is a consumable that requires that you have an output profession. Each recipe is an apprentice-level processing recipe that goes into the recipe's profession tab of the crafting UI. Finally, after gathering the materials and learning the recipe, the player executes the recipe and makes their new upgraded item. The new version of the item, if it is better than the baseline item, is now bound to the account.

But we're not done. The nifty part about upgrade items is that the owner chooses how they develop their equipment. Each tier allows the owner to select the next essence slot that the item accrues. You can add up to one vital slot, or up to 3 additional generic slots. With three levels to choose from at the launch of this new feature, you will have five essence slots of your choosing.

Additionally, we will work toward adding a new type of slot, the set-bonus slot. This slot would make the item fit into the current raid set bonus allowing the crafter to use one of their upgrade slots to "jump ahead" to earn the set bonus early, or to make their crafted item part of the raid sets. This is a longer-term goal with no immediate date for implementation.

We're looking forward to expanding the upgradable items over time and we believe that the new upgradables will make crafting professions a great way to engage with players throughout the game, returning a measure of reliability to the crafting system.

Daily and Weekly Quests for Craft Guilds

With the update that adds the Umbar Guild Member craft guild tier, we are adding repeatable daily and new weekly craft guild quests.

Each quest is available from the specific profession Umbar Guild Leader. The recipe to complete the quest is available for a small expenditure of coin from the guild leader and, once learned, cannot be forgotten.

The recipe requires you to craft modest recipes from the Umbar crafting tier, package them up, and turn them in to the guild leader. Completing a daily craft guild quest rewards you with guild reputation, a number of craft guild barter tokens, a recipe picker box for the profession, and a red sea-stone shard.

The weekly quest operates like the mission quests, with some changes. First, there will be weekly quest for each guild. Second, you need only to complete five dailies to meet the criteria for the weekly rewards. Third, there is no second tier to the weekly quest. Completing the weekly craft guild quest will reward you with a larger amount of guild reputation, a larger number of craft guild barter tokens, two luck stone settings, and a picker box containing universal solvent and a recipe box as options.

This is only the beginning of the implementation of quests and rewards surrounding the Umbar Craft Guilds. Our plan is to allow crafters enrolled in an Umbar Guild, after reaching a certain reputation level, to pass the knowledge of Umbar crafting back to the craft guilds in Eriador. The goal is to allow Umbar Guild Crafters the ability to give the knowledge they've gained to other characters on their account to earn great "favour" among the Eriador Craft Guilds. We also want to return to providing resource dungeon quests made available through guilds and continue to add methods to acquire luck stones and solvents for the new higher-tier recipes.

Ingredient Costs and Item Values

There are likely to be a number of questions surrounding the release of the Umbar Craft Guild tier. I plan on monitoring this thread as best I can over the next few days to answer questions. Preemptively, I want to provide a little clarity over ingredient cost and the item levels.

Base ingredient costs for equipped items are one luck stone and eight ingots. Jewellery requires one luck stone, five ingots, and two polished gems.

Tier 1 upgrades require a Luck-stone Hollow requiring a single luck stone, fifteen ingots, the basic tier item, and the recipe to combine all of the ingredients. Jewellery upgrades modify ingots down to ten and add five polished gems.

Tier 2 upgrades require a Luck-stone Socket which requires two luck stones, fifteen ingots, the current tier item, and the recipe to combine all of the ingredients. Jewellery upgrades modify ingots down to ten and add five polished gems.

Tier 3 upgrades require a Luck-stone Setting which requires three luck stones, fifteen ingots, three red sea stones, the current tier item, and the recipe to combine all of the ingredients. Jewellery upgrades modify ingots down to ten and add five polished gems.

Base tier items are 505-level items of uncommon quality. They require level 141 to equip, have the quality bind on equip, a modest vitality boost, a main stat essence slot, and a generic essence slot.

Tier 1 items are 509-level items of rare quality. They require level 150 to equip, are bound on creation, a modest vitality boost, a main stat essence slot, a generic item slot, and a vital or additional essence slot of the combiner's choosing.

Tier 2 items are 513-level items of rare quality. They require level 150 to equip, are bound on creation, a modest vitality boost, a main stat essence slot, a generic item slot, a vital or additional essence slot from the previous tier and add a vital essence slot (if available) or an additional generic essence slot of the combiner's choosing.

Tier 3 items are 517-level items of incomparable quality. They require level 150 to equip, are bound on creation, a modest vitality boost, a main stat essence slot, a generic item slot, a vital and additional essence slot or two additional generic essence slots from the previous tier and add a vital essence slot (if available) or an additional generic essence slot of the combiner's choosing.

In Closing

This is the first round of the Umbar Craft Guild and we are only releasing a smattering of the upgradable items. As we move through the storyline and continue development the depth and breadth of available recipes and upgradable items will grow alongside your characters.

Bring on your questions and we will answer them as best we can!