Hi fellow duders and dudettes, do you think it's worth it to train your artisans, because so far it seems like a waste of gold to me. Granted I have only reached Nighmare difficulty and circumstances might change on Hell and Inferno but the artisans just don't seem to be able to offer you anything that is remotely better than the drops you find, let alone all the goodies you can get in the auction house.

From what i've read there isn't really any reason to train them since you can just buy everything from the auction house. I do train them though because I am a completionist and have to do it.

Its a huge gold sink, but on random moments they might just craft you something good.
 
Its probably something for another class though, that always happens.

@TaliciaDragonsong said:

Its a huge gold sink, but on random moments they might just craft you something good. Its probably something for another class though, that always happens.

Not sure if you can answer this question but do you know where to find tomes of blacksmithing and jewelcrafting? All I find are pages. I know I could look this up but since im here I figured i'd ask.

@TaliciaDragonsong said:

Its a huge gold sink, but on random moments they might just craft you something good. Its probably something for another class though, that always happens.

Not sure if you can answer this question but do you know where to find tomes of blacksmithing and jewelcrafting? All I find are pages. I know I could look this up but since im here I figured i'd ask.

@laserbolts said:

@TaliciaDragonsong said:

Its a huge gold sink, but on random moments they might just craft you something good. Its probably something for another class though, that always happens.

Not sure if you can answer this question but do you know where to find tomes of blacksmithing and jewelcrafting? All I find are pages. I know I could look this up but since im here I figured i'd ask.

You find tomes in Hell difficulty and you find "Tomes of Secrets" in Inferno.

Ninja'd

@DillonWerner: @ajamafalous: Oh ok thank you sir. Probably should have just looked it up but no harm done.

I've been training them. I'm only halfway through normal, but they've been able to offer pretty decent gear. I don't use the AH, and vendors never seem to have any decent gear, so it's good to be able spend money on something relatively useful. You aren't gonna get something better than a boss drop, but it's still useful stuff.

Up until inferno, there isn't any reason to train the artisans; once you've however passed the threshold into the hotter than hell difficulty, it all of a sudden starts to become very worth your while. For example, perfect square gems range between 50-60 k on AH. They cost 30 k to make; and all the other levels beyond that are just multiplied. In the end, I'd suggest training your jeweler OR your smith; not both. Personally, I'm sticking with the jeweler, as all of a sudden, he's saving me obnoxious amounts of money. The jeweler is also far cheaper to train in comparison to the blacksmith.

The blacksmith just doesn't seem worth it to me, but honestly, I haven't seen any of the gear you can craft when you've got him maxed, I imagine that there's some decently crazy shit in there; perhaps legendaries? Who knows.

Up until inferno, there isn't any reason to train the artisans; once you've however passed the threshold into the hotter than hell difficulty, it all of a sudden starts to become very worth your while. For example, perfect square gems range between 50-60 k on AH. They cost 30 k to make; and all the other levels beyond that are just multiplied. In the end, I'd suggest training your jeweler OR your smith; not both. Personally, I'm sticking with the jeweler, as all of a sudden, he's saving me obnoxious amounts of money. The jeweler is also far cheaper to train in comparison to the blacksmith.

The blacksmith just doesn't seem worth it to me, but honestly, I haven't seen any of the gear you can craft when you've got him maxed, I imagine that there's some decently crazy shit in there; perhaps legendaries? Who knows.

I have been training my artisans throughout normal difficulty have they have given me some pretty good items to use. I am not using the Auction house so it is a good way to get the best gear I can get in each slot, that I might not find a good drop of in the game. This especially becomes true when the blacksmith can craft yellow items which have been great to use.

@Turambar said:

@Do_The_Manta_Ray said:

Up until inferno, there isn't any reason to train the artisans; once you've however passed the threshold into the hotter than hell difficulty, it all of a sudden starts to become very worth your while. For example, perfect square gems range between 50-60 k on AH. They cost 30 k to make; and all the other levels beyond that are just multiplied. In the end, I'd suggest training your jeweler OR your smith; not both. Personally, I'm sticking with the jeweler, as all of a sudden, he's saving me obnoxious amounts of money. The jeweler is also far cheaper to train in comparison to the blacksmith.

The blacksmith just doesn't seem worth it to me, but honestly, I haven't seen any of the gear you can craft when you've got him maxed, I imagine that there's some decently crazy shit in there; perhaps legendaries? Who knows.

There are specific blacksmith plans that you need a maxed out blacksmith to craft. The ones I have found are all rares, but I wouldn't be surprised if some legendary exists.

Yep - http://us.battle.net/d3/en/artisan/blacksmith/recipe/#type=legendary

I imagine as the amount of players farming drops off past the first few weeks the auction house will even itself out more. Also theirs some stuff that's just too rare to go up there.

I don't see why you wouldn't. I'm not even finished with act 3 on normal and I managed to upgrade them as much as I can right now. I also upgraded my first stash to maximum, and I have about 130k to spare.

So far the equipment I get from the blacksmith is the best I can get and the jeweler is super useful to make better gems.

But hey, what do I know?

@Strife777 said:

I don't see why you wouldn't. I'm not even finished with act 3 on normal and I managed to upgrade them as much as I can right now. I also upgraded my first stash to maximum, and I have about 130k to spare.

So far the equipment I get from the blacksmith is the best I can get and the jeweler is super useful to make better gems.

But hey, what do I know?

Well on normal he can make some decent gear, but its not like you really need it on normal. The problem is that he stops being very useful on nightmare and hell. In inferno, you can get blacksmith plans that seem decent, but you have to get a lucky drop for a good item. You will also need to have a maxed out blacksmith which is a huge expense to be able to craft them, not to mention salvage enough components.

Its true that the blacksmith can help you, but think about what you could get at auction for the same price as training him. Thats the issue. The jeweler on the other hand seems like a reasonably good investment particularly as you get late in the game and gems become more expensive at auction.

Train em once and you never have to touch them again. I would rather just get that gold sink out of the way early on.

I have the level 10 blacksmith with a few dropped patterns, the level 10 stuff costs over 50k to make and a handful of mats, the good versions of these sell in the auction house for up to 250k, you can save yorself some cash in the long run if you are lucky considering the investment to lvl 10 blacksmithing is half a million, the jeweler is much cheaper but i have yet to find a use for him, the one good thing i found about the blacksmith is that when you find blues or rares of bad quality and cant sell them on AH, rather than accept the 200g from vendor i usually get the mats and make a cheap rare, if you get 1 good one out of 5 its profit.

edit: probably good to mention that having at least a lvl 3-4 blacksmith can be super helpful if you start a second character, by lvl 11 you can get some great low level blues including shoulders and by 17 i think a rare head and a belt which will cost trivial amounts compared to what you will earn on a higher level character.I dont know if they sell as well now but back in the first week those lvl 17 helms sold like hotcakes. its practically how i afforded to lvl blacksmithing

It depends on whether or not the artisans intend to make 'arts' or 'crafts'.

@Red said:

I've been training them. I'm only halfway through normal, but they've been able to offer pretty decent gear. I don't use the AH, and vendors never seem to have any decent gear, so it's good to be able spend money on something relatively useful. You aren't gonna get something better than a boss drop, but it's still useful stuff.

Same here. I'm in Act II on Normal myself, and I've found the Blacksmith to be useful quite a few times. Until the prices on Auction House become acceptable, artisans are a good alternative.

Only thing worthwhile is the top end gems (as they are cheaper to make than AH since they are exclusively crafted). If you're really really really lucky you might be able to get a great item from the smith without spending ridicolous amounts of money, but I wouldn't count on it.

Also, don't break down items, just vendor them. Mats are just severely underpriced on the AH (sometimes even lower than what you can get by vendoring).

No, but I do it anyway.

@Grimluck343 said:

Train em once and you never have to touch them again. I would rather just get that gold sink out of the way early on.

Unless you're the type of player who thinks they will be done with Diablo III within a month or two, I don't see why you would do anything other than what Grimluck343 suggests. Training them is a finite amount of money, and once you've maxed the blacksmith and jeweler, you can devote all further gold to crafting and the auction house.

I would say no, at least not until you hit Inferno Act 1. Most people will probably hit a wall somewhere at Hell difficulty, around lvl 52-55 or so, where they actually need to get gear from the AH to progress. If you've been constantly pumping gold into your artisans you've probably spent a few hundreds of thousands, which is enough to buy enough gear to get through Hell. Once you get to Inferno, farming Butcher with five neph stacks can easily net you the gold to max out your artisans after only a few runs.

Through normal I found I often could craft better than I found, but now in nightmare it seems to be less usefull.

I maxed both of them just because.

I like to. Out of curiosity though, where can you find the recipes for the crazy blacksmith items or are they just random drops?

It depends on how far you plan to take it. For the most hardcore of the hardcore, crafting perfect Rares is going to be the real endgame. For everyone else, it doesn't really matter.

If I was playing I would probably max it out just to do it.

I use my blacksmith quite a bit to try and get good vitality gear. Prices in the Hardcore AH are pretty ridiculous.

I don't care if they are. They have achievements and it's something else to do in this game, so why not? Eventually they will be and if you don't level it now, you'll be behind when it happens.

At higher levels they are very useful, but if you think you can hold off until the 1.03 update, which addresses the high cost of crafting and training artisans. You can read more about it (and other changes) here: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6018173

crafting gems up to flawless squares is pointless(gems ultra cheap on AH), you can train your gem guy up to that point, then wait till inferno to start making the higher tier gems for your gear.

Ive noticed people joining public game to use the artisans. They log in, stay in town for time and then leave again.

I guess that is a viable option, but I like to be self sufficient.

No, but achievements!

Also if you don't want to use the Auction House, then you might get some good stuff from the crafting, but it isn't necessary.

I don't feel like buying equipment from the Auction House (just the odd gem and materials), so I level them up. Sometimes you get worthwhile stuff out of it.

I really like training them, as I've found them quite useful. I play HC, so if I lose a character I don't really have any way to farm gear for my characters. The HC AH economy is a lot better than the SC one, but it's still not always cost-efficient to buy good high Vit items at low levels that get quickly outdated. Crafting some decent, albeit not great, gear from the Blacksmith is a nice middle ground.

The Jeweler is of course, absolutely amazing and should be upgraded as much as you can manage.

Well they do take a finite amount to level them up, and considering how easy money is in the game you will get to the point where they are at max level then just using the money to make more powerful gems or teaching found things to your smith. Both have been useful leveled up as much as possible in normal & now that I'm in nightmare, with so many of the items having gem slots, putting in a powerful gem makes it better. Haven't been relying too much on the AH so without that time sink (of constantly searching that) it gives me more time to play the game.

ive been training both but ive only made use of the jeweler.. combining smaller stones into bigger ones. right now i cant train them further cuz im passed the point of pages..

im really just doing it for the achievements.. all my gear i found was better than that of crafting or merchants so far.

As it currently stands, building up the artisans is great for general purposes but terrible at actual "I need something better for this slot" requirements especially when compared to the material requirements and the Auction House.

What Blizzard should try is for the expensive items, they need to keep part of the randomness but also introduce some control in creation. I would like them to introduce a way to "rebuild" or "recycle" an item that has undesirable stats on items with a tight item budget. We need either a "fix this stat" or "make it look like this item" feature to help bring it into alignment from a value perspective of the Auction House and random boss drops.

As it stands, the jeweler is the only way to get better gems apart from drops and buying items from the AH with gems slotted. I find the blacksmith to be lacking and the randomness is not worth the waste of money if you roll stats you don't need. I'd say level the jeweler, get gear from the AH, and vendor your blues/shitty yellows. Sell any rare gear with +primary stat and +vit on the AH, use the money to buy what you need.