01. Profession Selection — 30 Pick
At level 30 you pick TWO Gathering skills + ONE Crafting skill. Do NOT pick Armorsmith or Weaponsmith as your craft in week 1. Everyone is dumping quest drop gear on the market — crafted blue gear is unsellable below cost until week 3. Correct week 1 picks: Alchemy (consumables, scrolls, potions — always sells) + Cooking (raid food, buff food — mandatory meta consumable). Gathering picks for every class: Vital Extract (herbs — used by Alchemy) + Essencetapping (ores — used by ALL crafts).
- Never level crafting before level 50 of your gathering skills first
- Alchemy 1–300: make Lesser/Greater MP pots. Sells instantly 24/7 at launch.
- Do NOT make manastones via crafting before week 2. The market is flooded.
02. Two Gathering Routes (Bank 500k/day)
Route 1 — Eltnen (Elyos) / Morheim (Asmodian) level 25 zone Herb Loop: run in a figure-8 through the Moonwell and Shadowmarsh areas. 15 minutes = ~180 green herbs = ~250k at launch AH prices. Do this 2x daily. Route 2 — Beluslan / Heiron Ore Loop for ores: the 43 nodes around the Abyss Entry rift spawn on 8-minute timers. No competition at 04:00 server time. This route alone funds all your pre-45 enhancement costs.
03. Weekly Goals & Kinah Spend Guide
Daily craft quota after reaching level 40: 4 crafts minimum per day using work-order contracts from the Crafting NPC. This keeps your crafting proficiency XP rising without grinding materials. Weekly goal: attempt ONE Legendary craft (Enchant Dust → Legendary Manastone) every Sunday, using fail-stacks accumulated all week. Kinah priority 1–45: (1) Enchant stones (always #1), (2) 450+ ilvl gear upgrades from AH, (3) Stigma stones (buy class-locked ones only at < 100k each), (4) Consumables, (5) Cosmetics last. Never spend Kinah on flight passes or teleport scrolls — quests give 100+ of each for free.
- Work-order contracts: Buy 7/week on Monday (stack up), run 4/day. Zero material cost, pure XP and green craft output.
- Crafting gear cap rule: Never craft gear below your current equippable ilvl minus 20. Nobody buys outdated blues.
- Legendary craft timing: At 200 proficiency, set fail-stack = 40%, then hit craft on Sunday. 6% base chance becomes ~25% with pity.
- Sell ALL manastone dusts on AH on Wednesday (after reset day) when prices are 2× higher due to guild raid prep.