Dragonscale crafting guide

Dragonscale crafters is a guild for the master leathercrafter who is tired of working the simple skins found on polar bears and unicorns and want a real challange. These masters of crafting want to access the skills that will allow them to work the most difficult, and powerful, skins in the entire vally... the very scales of the mighty dragons.

Dragonscale crafters is effectivly a subguild of the leathercrafters guild. You cannot access dragonscale crafters without finishing all 4 levels of LC, and you have to have put in the time to learn by doing your craftsmanship up to at least 75 before you will be able to even START learning to work scales. After all, without signifigant skill in the basics of crafting, you wouldn't even know where to start.

The dscale guild is also a profession guild, and should probably be used as such. The guild only grants you one dex or wis, so it isn't really nessacary to use normal levels on it.

Skills

Although crafting dragonscales uses many crafting skins, there are only 2 skills that are specificly used for it.

Dragonscale crafting

This is the only skill that you can train at dscale guild. You can train 33% for every level you have in the guild (34 on last level), and it effects numerous things, such as "crits", quality, and most importantly, the types of items you can make. Levels in Dscale dont actualy require you to train this skill, so you could get by just training 1%, however you will still want as much of it as you can afford.

Dragonscale expertise

This is the lbd skill, and acts much like leathercrafting adeptness in that it increases the effectiveness of the main crafting skill. Much like Dscale crafting, expertise increases "crits" and quality. However, expertise has 2 other, more important aspects; 1) without at least 25 expertise, you cannot join level 3 dragonscale crafters. 2) without a high enough expertise, you cannot work any skins other then wyvernscale.

Working Scales

Once you have access to Dscale crafting, you will need to start gathering wyvern skins. Unlike leathercrafting, you cannot fail with dscale, so you could probably use just 1% if you wanted to. This is not recomended, but you could. However, also unlike leathercrafting, it takes multiple skins to create even one item. For example, one of the simplest items to make are wyvernscale gloves. When making a pair, the first skin goes to make the base (a very heavy and bulky item that is worthless by itself), while the other 2 skins go to increase the number of scales on the base until it changes into a pair of useable gloves. More complex items take additional skins, until you get to vests and leggings which take 6 skins each.

The only exception to this is if you get a "crit". Occasionaly while working dscale items, you will get a message that tells you you got double uses out of a single skin, which effectivly reduces the number of skins needed for that item by one. This is very helpful at any time, and even more so when working rare dragon skins. The chance of getting a crit is dependant on both your dscale crafting, and your dscale expertise. (There is another, rare crit that goes off when you finish an item, that gives you a major boost to quality).

Why should I work dragonscales

Dragonscale crafting is not for everyone. If you have a low dex or wis, if you are impatent, if you cannot afford to train up the expensive crafting skill, then perhaps you should consider waiting. However, if you want to get to work, there are a few benifits to the guild, assuming you get your dscale skills high.

What you do NOT get is a good way to make money. In general, until both your dscale skills are at least 50, dont expect to do anything but loose money. Wyvernscale items sell badly (20k silver for gloves that took 3x 10k value skins), and the other common types actualy sell worse. However, once your skills start to increase, dscale items provide a steady way to increase your df pool without having to waste time killing df mobs or buying items on sales. And should you take the time to max out your skills, you can start to create some really effective and valueable items.

Scales

There are 4-5 types of scales that you can work, each with their own properties. They are not interchangeable.

Wyvernscales

Wyvernscales are obtained from the fierce and cunning wyverns. These predatory animals are quick and vicious, but are nonetheless incredibly simple animals compared to the mighty dragons they resemble. Wyvernscale items make a tough, lightweight armor that, while less effective then chitinium silk, is still quite reasonable to wear. Rarely, highly skilled crafters can pull the fierce toughness of the wyverns into these items, making glowing wyvernscale highly prized by many offtanks. As wyverns are the easiest dragons to find and kill, and the easiest skins to work into items, all dscale crafters prize these skins to practice their skills. Although vastly stronger then typical wyverns, Drakes are also considered to have wyvernscale skin.

Serpent scales

Much tougher and stronger then typical snakeskin, Serpent scales are most commonly found on the horrible Hydra monsters (and their lesser bretherin, the cyrohydras). Serpent scales require a bit of skill to work, but nowhere near as much as do full dragonscales. Although serpent scales rarely (never) glow, they nonetheless have a strange and mystical property; serpent scale items have an affinity to mages, and the more serpent scale equipment a mage wears, the stronger their spells become.

Faerie dragonscale

The smallest of the dragons, and common compared to full sized ones, Faerie dragons are nevertheless full powered and extreamly dangerous creatures. Or should i say extreamly annoying. They have a toxic breath that blinds you for a long period of time, a spell that stuns you, and dangerous fangs and claws that rend you apart. And should you succeed in killing one, you will obtain little more experience then wyverns, and one skin. Many are the adventurers who defeat a faerie dragon, only to cry out in frustration because they failed to properly skin it. Faerie dragons are HIGHLY magical creatures, perhaps even moreso then their larger brethern, and that magic often seeps from their scales into the items the crafter is creating. These magical items have an affinity with a certin element, and anyone wearing it who can control that element (and cast spells dealing that elemental damage) receves a boost. However, the Faerie dragon's chaotic nature means that you are just as likely to get a +fire item as you are to get a +sonic one.

Red Dragonscale

Found only on red dragons, these scales are quite difficult to come across, unless the dragonscale crafter in question is of such heroic stature that they can defeat one themselves. Red dragonscales, with their huge size and toughness, provide armor that is unmatched by lesser creatures, and is even lighter then spidersilk. Even a dragonscale crafter with minimal skills will create a red dragonscale armor that has compareable protection to fine steel studded chitinum silk, with even less weight and bulk. Master crafters however, will be able to produce items that are far more effective (1-3+ adjectives).

Green Dragonscale

Little is known about these incredible skins. Green dragons really dislike parting with their skins, and most adventurers are not stupid enough to argue with them. Tales circulate however of Green Dragonscale armors that far surpass even the might red dragoncale version.