(copied over from the Angry Joe forums)
~ Architect ~
Architects are craftsmen that create items to be placed in houses. Through their tireless efforts, the pioneers of Nexus can place interesting doodads and useful furniture in their own homes--using wood and other natural materials. If you prefer decorating over disemboweling, the Architect trade is most likely for you!
Tradeskill Type: Production
Best Tradeskill Pairing: Survivalist
Best Class Pairing: Any! Architects produce no class-specific items.
~ Armorer ~
Armorers are craftsmen that create Medium-class and Heavy-class armor to be used in battle, as well as upgrade and augment existing Medium and Heavy armor. Using metals extracted from Nexus, Armorers produce the finest types of wearable plating, protection, and repulsion shields known to the galaxy. If you need to put more solid steel between you and the nasties that want you dead, then perhaps Armorer is the right trade for you.
Tradeskill Type: Production
Best Tradeskill Pairing: Mining
Best Class Pairing: Warriors are the only known class that can use the Heavy armor created by high level Armorers. Stalkers can eventually learn to use the Medium armor created by lower-level Armorers as well.
~ Tailoring ~
Tailors are craftsmen that specialize in armor made from light cloth, best used by the agile gunslingers and spellcasters of Nexus. They rely on no others--able to get what they need through the common knowledge of salvaging and combat that even non-Tailors can partake in. Tailors can also better augment the same armor they create--altering the circuits inside to better fit the people they are to be worn by. If you enjoy quiet knitting, stitching, and tearing apart the belongings of your enemies' lifeless corpses, perhaps you are a perfect fit as a Tailor?
Tradeskill Type: Production
Best Tradeskill Pairing: None. Tailor is entirely self-sufficient. It would be best to pair it with a gathering skill, as you can eventually use some of the gathered materials and sell those you don't need.
Best Class Pairing: Spellslinger or Esper
~ Outfitter ~
Outfitters are craftsmen who produce Medium-class armor out of leather and bone--as well as augment existing leather armor.. Similar to their Armorer and Tailor brethren, Outfitters decide to specialize in armor that reflects the hardy yet agile fighters that can use their best work. If the smell of dyes, tanning hides, and raw bone sends you to a happy place, perhaps you should give Outfitting a try?
Tradeskill Type: Production
Best Tradeskill Pairing: Survivalist
Best Class Pairing: Stalker or Warrior
~ Technologist ~
Technologists are men of medicine--but instead of taking up the scalpel and suture, they prefer volatile chemicals and untested machinery. Using materials salvaged from Eldan relics, they try their best to make the wild frontier of Nexus a bit less dangerous for the rest of us. Healing potions and other buffing items are created by their efforts--able to be used by any class. If you don't mind working with skin-eating chemicals, itchy plants, and black market machinery, perhaps Nexus could use you as a Technologist?
Tradeskill Type: Production
Best Tradeskill Pairing: Relic Hunter
Best Class Pairing: Any! Medicines produced by Technologists can be used by any class.
~ Weaponsmithing ~
Weaponsmiths are the backbone of life on Nexus--without weapons, the war between the Exiles and Dominion would most likely be settled with boring things like diplomacy and gardening. Thankfully, they aren't--and because of this, Weaponsmiths are able to make a large profit off of turning minerals in the ground into things you can stab and shoot with. If you love the clink of metal and war profiteering, perhaps Weaponsmithing is right for you?
Tradeskill Type: Production
Best Tradeskill Pairing: Mining
Best Class Pairing: Any! Weaponsmiths produce weapons usable by any class.
~ Gathering Tradeskills ~
Gathering Tradeskills are professions that involve the harvesting of nodes of resources, which are later turned into usable products by Production Tradeskills.
In order to gather materials, you must first find a node. Nodes are found all across zones from Algoroc onwards--and they are visible on the minimap to those who have learned the related gathering profession. (unless you specifically turn off these indicators) At the moment, there seems to be an issue with Node icons on the minimap appearing where there is no actual node--make sure to make a mental note of these and avoid them in the future. This will hopefully be fixed in the next Beta patch.
NOTE: Those who have not learned the required gathering profession can currently still gather the lowest-level nodes of gathering professions, but they will not be listed on the minimap.
Once you have discovered a node, you must attack it in order for it to drop materials and give you tradeskill XP. This can be done using abilities on your hotbar--or you can use the slower, safer method of repeatedly right-clicking to use your auto-attacks.
A better method is to use Laser Tools, purchasable from certain Tradeskill vendors. These are used by equipping them on your Character screen and then right-clicking a node relevant to the kind of weapon. These are much faster and more efficient than normal attacks and abilities--but must first be purchased, and lose durability over time like any other equipment.
Gathering tradeskills do not have a Tech Tree, Schematics, or Trade Achievements like Production skills do. However, they follow the same level progression and XP scaling.
~ Mining ~
Miners are those who go out into the world in search of the deepest, strongest, and most plentiful veins of rare minerals and metals. Many trades are in high demand of metals--and so a Miner is often a good compliment to other tradeskills such as Armoring and Weaponsmithing. If you find the glint of gems and the sound of clinking metal to be enticing, see if Mining is your forte!
Tradeskill Type: Gathering
Best Tradeskill Pairing: Armorer or Weaponsmith.
Best Class Pairing: Any
~ Relic Hunter ~
Relic Hunters are scavengers, searching Nexus for remnants of Eldan technology. They collect machinery parts and omniplasm, crucial ingredients in a variety of Technologist productions. While Technologists benefit primarily from their exploits, other professions occasionally call on the odd Eldan ingredient or two. If you enjoy investigating old musty machines, and promptly bashing them apart for parts, then perhaps you are best suited as a Relic Hunter!
Tradeskill Type: Gathering
Best Tradeskill Pairing: Technologist
Best Class Pairing: Any
~ Survivalist ~
Survivalists are people of the wilderness--chopping down trees and cutting up carcasses in order to supply Architects and Outfitters with the materials they need to do their job best. If you enjoy the death cries of powerful beasts and the sound of falling trees, take up the axe and knife and become a Survivalist!
Tradeskill Type: Gathering
Best Tradeskill Pairing: Architect and Outfitter
~ Secondary Tradeskills ~
Secondary Tradeskills are Tradeskills that do not count towards your two-skill limit, and do not work in the same way as other Tradeskills. They must, however, be learned from their respective trainer in Tradeskill-related areas of large towns and cities.
Secondary Tradeskills do not have Ranks, Achievements, or a Tech Tree like other Tradeskills. They each work in their own way, unique to even other Secondary Tradeskills.
~ Cooking ~
Cooking is a Secondary Tradeskill that involves the production of food, which can heal, replenish mana, and give you buffs for fully eating the specific kind of food. In general, these cannot be used during battle--and you must sit down for a short period of time to finish them properly.
All Schematics required for Cooking can be purchased from Cooking Trainers, found in cities near other Tradeskill related trainers and vendors. Additives required for cooking can also be bought from this Trainer. Each Trainer has a specific list of Schematics they sell, and ones in higher level areas tend to have ones that produce better items.
The creation of food is the done the same way as other Production Tradeskills--take the required materials and any Additives you want to bring along to a Crafting Station. Each Schematic has Variants, just like any other Schematic--but these are not tied to any achievements or Tech Tree.
~ Farming ~
Farming is a Secondary Tradeskill focused around collecting plants for use in the Technologist profession, as well as Cooking.
Plants can be found as nodes in the world, and can be harvested by anyone. You can create your own nodes, however, by planting Seeds in a garden you have built in your House.
Seeds can be found by purchasing them from a Farming Trainer, or as uncommon drops from Farming nodes in the world. Better seeds and nodes are found in higher-level zones.
There is no Rank required to plant any type of plant--if you have access to the seed, you can plant it.
Farming has no Schematics, and thus you can only harvest items with it.
~ Schematics ~
Schematics are the basic recipes required to create products using Production Skills. They are unlocked using the Tech Tree, which will be covered later in the guide.
To use a schematic, you must first visit a Crafting Station, available in most major cities, as well as your House if you have built one there. You can open the Tradeskill interface using your Codex while outside of a Crafting Station, but you will not be able to craft anything.
When you open up the Schematics list, you will be able to see all of the Schematics you have learned, organized by Tradeskill and Rank. (For example, Novice Architect and Apprentice Architect are two possible categories). They are then further categorized into the type of product created. (For example, Improvements and Accents are two sub-categories for Architects) On the right side of the Schematics interface you can see the materials required to create the product, the Tech Tree achievement you learned the schematic from, and the possible Variants you can create.
By clicking the Craft button, you will proceed to a confirmation screen. On this screen you can see a final confirmation of the materials you need (highlighted in red if you don't have the required amount) and the possible variants you can create.
WARNING: After you press the Start button on this confirmation dialog, you will not be able to regain the materials by cancelling the craft. Make sure to make something in the Crafting screen before you close the window, as you will lose the craft materials whether you make something or not! Double-check to make sure you have any Additives you need to create the Variant you want
~ Experiment ~
In order to unlock certain Variants of a crafting schematic, you must first Experiment. Variants that require Experimentation will be represented by a closed Padlock symbol where the inventory icon would typically be in the Schematic variants listing.
Experimentation is done using the same Crafting Screen--except you are only given a general area on the Crafting Graph in which its square is located. You must use Additives to move the crosshairs into an area in the highlighted zone, and then Craft the item to see if you got the location correct.
If you did, the highlighted area will be replaced with the specific Square in future craft attempts, and you will be reward with the Variant you unlocked.
If you incorrectly guessed the location, you will be given a temperature reading of how close you were. (Hot, Warm, Cold, Freezing, etc) Use this to better refine the location next time!
TIP: If there are multiple locked Variants of a schematic, you can mouse over the respective icon on the top-right of the Crafting interface to show you the name of the locked Variant, and highlight its respective zone on the graph.
~ Tech Tree ~
The Tech Tree is how you go about unlocking new Schematics for production.
At the top of the Tech Tree there is a dropdown box that lists all of the Ranks of Tradeskills you have unlocked. To move to a Tech Tree of a different Tradeskill or Rank, simply click it in the dropdown list.
The Tech Tree is represented by several boxes linked by lines. Each box represents a Schematic. Those that are highlighted in green are unlocked, and can current be created using the Schematics interface. Those that are not yet unlocked are highlighted in blue, and have a progress bar showing how close you are to unlocking it.
In order to unlock a Schematic, you must first unlock all Schematics that are prerequisites for it (linked to it via lines from higher up in the Tech Tree). Once you have done so, you can begin to complete the required Achievement. Click on the Schematic on the Tech Tree to see an interface listing the item Variant required to be crafted for the Achievement. The exact amount is listed on the box next to the progress bar. The Variant required to unlock the achievement is generally one created using a prerequisite schematic.
EXAMPLE: On the Architect tech tree, the Hitching Post is the first square, and Shabby Wooden Crate is the next square down, connected to it via a line. In order to unlock the Shabby Wooden Crate, you must first create a certain number of Round Feeding Troughs, a possible variant of the Hitching Post.
Nice to have all this info in one place - I cant wait to see more info on crafting as the nda lifts down the line.
I'm guessing the Armorer and Outfitter descriptions pre-date the Medic and Engineer reveals.
I think armor crafting goes like this:
Armorer - makes Heavy Armor for Warriors and Engineers.
Outfitter - makes Medium Armor for Stalkers and Medics.
Tailor - makes Light Armor for Spellslingers and Espers.
I haven't thought too much about the tradeskills I will have active on my Main. I may just start out with two gathering skills active (probably Mining and Survivalist), and then switch to a production skill later.
Im definitely going architect - housing is big for me - and ill pick up the associate gathering skill for it.
Yup. Going Architect with survivalist. I want to build me some house stuff!
Mining & armorer for me (possibly mining & weaponsmith, but armorer looks more appealing right now).
Check out this beautiful clickable chart I found on Reddit.
http://wildstar.silvercircle.net/tradeskills.svg
Architect pretty much needs... everything. In my opinion it would be crazy to try and do it straight out of the box, you'd spend a fortune on the auction house buying what you can't gather yourself. If you have Architect going, that only leaves one gathering skill. I think it's a tradeskill for when you have someone to max level, plus have a few younger alts out there gathering.
No idea which tradeskills I'm going with. I need more information- like is there b.o.p. max level armor that makes some kind of armorsmithing worth it. NDA will drop sooner or later and we'll all find out. :)
Wow that's nuts - I may have to go another route as I level and then switch to architect later by dropping something.