Tarutao
Staff Emeritus
There is no easy way to put this, so I'll try over-simplified:
"The very top-end arrow recipe for fletching is way too easy"
... okay, that said, I'll elaborate. All of the arrow recipes in the fletching tradeskill involve the combine of 4 arrow parts: an arrowhead, a shaft, a fletch/vane, and a nock. Each part has several different types or varying quality (and correspondingly, price), and higher quality components results in higher quality arrows.
(No, this thread is about complaining that certain combinations don't result in a good enough arrow for the cost. I'm well aware of the pointlessness.)
There exists a problem, however, with the nocks. By and far, it seems that the more expensive (read: higher quality and making higher quality arrows) Small Groove Nocks yield arrow combines with a significantly lower trivial level. This problem seems insubstantial until you're skilling up Fletching and realize how this affects the top-end of the skill.
Part One of the Comparison
There are 216 arrow recipe combinations: 72 for each type of nock. 36 of the 72 for the Large Groove Nocks (read: the cheap-o low quality ones) are non-trivial at 199 skill. This means, half of these lower-quality arrows are still hard to impossible (read: so hard you get a message that you can't possibly make them or increase skill on the combine attempt) to make.
Part Two of the Comparison
Of the 216 arrow recipe combinations, there is a singular, most expensive and highest quality recipe using one of each of the most expensive type of part of each of the four parts (read: including the Small Groove Nocks). This recipe, however, has a decent sucess rate even at 199 skill (read: low trivial especially in comparison to low quality arrows)
What this means for the Fletching tradeskill
Since the very top arrow recipe trivials lower than approximately 1/3 of the entirety of arrow recipes, there's really no use to making a lot of arrows that really should be intermediate steps while skilling up. At this point, you skill up on crap-quality arrows until you suddenly reach the point where you can make the best arrows you'll ever be able to make more easily than the crap you're already working on. With bows trivialling at 192, you should simply stop skilling up around 200 skill, as the top recipe is doable (even though not every recipe is).
What can be done
There are really two ways to handle this: (1) full revamp, which is supposedly on the to-do list, or (2) minor, but extensive overhaul of 144 of the arrow recipes... specifically, a trivial-level for trivial-level swap between the 72 Large Groove Nock recipes and the 72 Small Groove Nock recipes. This swap would correct the fletching progression issues, making the very best arrows also to be the very hardest to make. This also won't impose upon the concept of a future overhaul either, as no recipes or items are changing, just trivial levels that can just as easily be rechanged.
Sorry for the blocks of text, but there's an issue here I thought I should mention.
"The very top-end arrow recipe for fletching is way too easy"
... okay, that said, I'll elaborate. All of the arrow recipes in the fletching tradeskill involve the combine of 4 arrow parts: an arrowhead, a shaft, a fletch/vane, and a nock. Each part has several different types or varying quality (and correspondingly, price), and higher quality components results in higher quality arrows.
(No, this thread is about complaining that certain combinations don't result in a good enough arrow for the cost. I'm well aware of the pointlessness.)
There exists a problem, however, with the nocks. By and far, it seems that the more expensive (read: higher quality and making higher quality arrows) Small Groove Nocks yield arrow combines with a significantly lower trivial level. This problem seems insubstantial until you're skilling up Fletching and realize how this affects the top-end of the skill.
Part One of the Comparison
There are 216 arrow recipe combinations: 72 for each type of nock. 36 of the 72 for the Large Groove Nocks (read: the cheap-o low quality ones) are non-trivial at 199 skill. This means, half of these lower-quality arrows are still hard to impossible (read: so hard you get a message that you can't possibly make them or increase skill on the combine attempt) to make.
Part Two of the Comparison
Of the 216 arrow recipe combinations, there is a singular, most expensive and highest quality recipe using one of each of the most expensive type of part of each of the four parts (read: including the Small Groove Nocks). This recipe, however, has a decent sucess rate even at 199 skill (read: low trivial especially in comparison to low quality arrows)
What this means for the Fletching tradeskill
Since the very top arrow recipe trivials lower than approximately 1/3 of the entirety of arrow recipes, there's really no use to making a lot of arrows that really should be intermediate steps while skilling up. At this point, you skill up on crap-quality arrows until you suddenly reach the point where you can make the best arrows you'll ever be able to make more easily than the crap you're already working on. With bows trivialling at 192, you should simply stop skilling up around 200 skill, as the top recipe is doable (even though not every recipe is).
What can be done
There are really two ways to handle this: (1) full revamp, which is supposedly on the to-do list, or (2) minor, but extensive overhaul of 144 of the arrow recipes... specifically, a trivial-level for trivial-level swap between the 72 Large Groove Nock recipes and the 72 Small Groove Nock recipes. This swap would correct the fletching progression issues, making the very best arrows also to be the very hardest to make. This also won't impose upon the concept of a future overhaul either, as no recipes or items are changing, just trivial levels that can just as easily be rechanged.
Sorry for the blocks of text, but there's an issue here I thought I should mention.
