When to start crafting? (and other gear questions)

At what level should I start crafting my own items or trading for really good ones? I'm level 49 duelist right now and it's getting increasingly difficult to upgrade an item without losing support gems or resistances. Every time I upgrade an item I have to shuffle my rings and amulet around to get the most resistances possible and move my supports around to maintain good dps.

I have quite a few orbs sitting in my stash that could be used to start crafting or trading, but I'm not sure what the gear is worth, or what the orbs are worth, or if crafting is even viable. Is there any way of knowing how much a piece of gear is worth besides just trading a lot and getting a feel for what things are worth?

How much of a dps hit do you guys usually tolerate to upgrade resistances or to keep your supports set up the way they are? Like if I got a new weapon that increased my dps from 200 to 230, but I would lose added fire damage for a skill or 20% to a resist, would it be worth it? (theoretical of course, but what kind of trade offs are acceptable?)

My biggest issue about my gear is that I got IR so I'm trying to get all evasion gear, but I use cleave with life on hit and faster attacks, and dual strike with faster attacks (and whatever else I can fit in) so I have red and green supports on red and green skills. It's pretty hard to find things with the right color sockets and links when I'm trying to get evasion gear.

What would be the best way to get around these issues? Crafting/buying? Or just keep playing until it would be a better investment?

In a barter based system, 'worth' is fluid and changes depending on what you want/need.

When you are feeling like you are on top of the world. Life can't get any better. You are just so darn happy. Nothing could ever bring your mood down. Remove all sharp objects from your house.
Start crafting.

In my experiance, the only time you craft is when you are finding content too hard or you're at end game. Crafting is very viable in this game. Though, like most crafting systems, it's random. You'll more than likely save a lot of currency just buying uprades from other people. The only problem with that is that it'll usually take a long time since you'll need to find someone with an upgrade.

I recommend crafting since it's
A) Fun and
B) Satisfying

It's nice to see an awesome item that you made. It's also nice to link it in chat for others to marvel at. If links and sockets is your problem, just use an Alchemy on a 4 link item to start you off. If you don't have any 4 link items saved up, 1 Alch is usually all it takes for people to hand one over to you. If you're looking for a specific stat though (like + fire resist) then you can just use Alterations until you get the desired stat (make sure to use an Augmentation on it if it only has 1 stat!) you can then use a Regal on it to add 1 more stat and make it rare. I should note that this method is far more costly.

If you haven't been trading with other players, I suggest you start. It's a good way to evaluate when you see a good deal and when you're over paying too much. This is especially true when trying to buy gear. For currency rates, use --link removed--. It's fan made and is a good generalization as too how much each currency is worth. So don't take it as law, but I'd say a good 80-90% of it is spot

Coming from someone that has spend ~20 exalts worth of currency crafting - don't do it. You are far far far better off just buying what you need / want.

Only time you should be using currency to craft is if you want to change color of sockets (armor rolls red most of the time, evasion rolls green majority, ES rolls blue majority, so keep that in mind). Or if you are like mid level and want to get a 4L or something.

Trying to craft 5L or 6L = you lose. Trying to craft GG wep roll = you lose. Trying to craft GG armor roll = you lose. Can you win lotto? Yes, but again not best choice to do crafting in long run.

I learned hard way by wasting so much on crafting - wish somebody told me DO NOT DO IT! lol but seriously save ur currency and trade u will thank me later.

"

CliveHowlitzer wrote:

When you are feeling like you are on top of the world. Life can't get any better. You are just so darn happy. Nothing could ever bring your mood down. Remove all sharp objects from your house.
Start crafting.

I lol'd since this is very true hah.

I have problems with knowing what gear is worth what, especially for classess i dont play but i guess that comes with time.

For orbs prices there's this: --link removed--/ It's not 100% set in stone, but it helpes a lot and a lot of people uses it so you can easily know the value. I wrote orb's values on piece of paper so i could know what's what and it got much less confusing.

The most important ones are :

gemcutterprism - 60
regret - 20
chaos - 20
scouring - 10
alchemy - 10
fusing - 10

Those are the ones used the most in trading. Those numbers are just values i used. 1 would be chromatic orb. You can use multipled or divided ones like alchemy - 1, chaos 2 and 6 for gcp but this weird value numbers are just to make it easier (at least for me xD)