I am thinking it was a mistake taking up gardening and crafting, I can not get the items needed to complete them. Plants will not drop, and can not purchase in shop. I do not know what game had in mind when they made completing crafting quests and gardening so hard to do. Me, I am thinking when these plants die when test realm closes and they will, I will not plant any more nor craft any new projects. Sorry Game it was fun when you had it simple. It is a part of game players will struggle in but not for me.
Some of the crafting quests take a lot of time. I am on the ZF one, it's awful.
If you ever want to continue crafting, do transmute regents. You can buy transmutes from vendors. Transmutes are recipies for a rarer regent and the ingredients have common regents you can find on the streets of worlds. It makes crafting much easier
Gardening - Strategic gardening is pretty easy and has a huge pay-off. - Strategic gardening means planting efficient outdoor plots at houses. - It took me a while to clue-in how to be an efficient gardener. I recommend searching the internet for tips, tricks, and info. If it seems difficult, do more research. Because its not. - I currently farm 300+ KP across 3 wizards on the same account. Two of the wizards are very low level utility wizards. I get more than 100,000G per week, plus amber and sunstone. Just from gardens.
Crafting - Crafting quests up to Zafaria are pretty quick and easy. But crafting gear isn't very good until Zafaria. - The Zafaria crafting quest seems difficult when you do it (fossils!) but in hindsight very minor compared to whats coming up! - Crafting good housing items (portals, manikins, etc) require lots of reagents/wealth which is tough for a first time wizard under level 60. - Avalon crafting quest not a big deal, but Azteca crafting quest is silly. - For an experienced player with a high level wizard crafting is pretty easy. Accumulating most reagents is quite easy, and you can buy most at the bazaar. (exception: amber, turquise, potent trap).
Gardening - Strategic gardening is pretty easy and has a huge pay-off. - Strategic gardening means planting efficient outdoor plots at houses. - It took me a while to clue-in how to be an efficient gardener. I recommend searching the internet for tips, tricks, and info. If it seems difficult, do more research. Because its not. - I currently farm 300+ KP across 3 wizards on the same account. Two of the wizards are very low level utility wizards. I get more than 100,000G per week, plus amber and sunstone. Just from gardens.
Crafting - Crafting quests up to Zafaria are pretty quick and easy. But crafting gear isn't very good until Zafaria. - The Zafaria crafting quest seems difficult when you do it (fossils!) but in hindsight very minor compared to whats coming up! - Crafting good housing items (portals, manikins, etc) require lots of reagents/wealth which is tough for a first time wizard under level 60. - Avalon crafting quest not a big deal, but Azteca crafting quest is silly. - For an experienced player with a high level wizard crafting is pretty easy. Accumulating most reagents is quite easy, and you can buy most at the bazaar. (exception: amber, turquise, potent trap).
Happy Wizarding!
I am a master (or about to be master) crafter when I am only level 22! Is that good?
I just had to plow under some of my plants, I took care of them daily, I went in and they were just plain dead while day before they were on way of elder. Shame to put all that work in plants and over night they die. I have blamed the game when they maintence game and open the test realm as it affects gardening a lot but they seem to not care. I do not know how many plants that just plain died over night and I did not want to revive and go through all that time over again so now I plow under. When these gardens are through I decided not to plant again, I have a number of red bell peppers and have not seen any amber drop, I have several silver trumpet vines and yet to see any amber drop. Matter fact I have not gotten one amber from any of the plants I have planted. When these gardens gone I work on my pets and get away from crafting and gardening as it is not what it should be. the game needs to make changes if they want me as a player to continue to play these assets of the game.
I agree with most of what Rottenheart said, especially about the value of gardening, but I have to disagree about crafted gear not being good until Zafaria. The crafted Wintertusk gear is excellent; I crafted a full set for my balance wizard and it served her well through most of Avalon, up until Lake Shore, where higher critical block became necessary (and the Avalon gear provided it). Also, turquoise can be found in the bazaar; I got 4 of the 5 needed for the Azteca crafting quest that way. It sells immediately when it shows up, though, so you have to sit there and keep refreshing, and jump on it when you see it.
Fickle Pickles are also a good source of many reagents commonly needed for crafting (incl. sunstone), and they multiply even faster than KP. The advantage over KP is that they mature faster, only take up a small plot, and the seeds are auctionable, so you can easily get them and sell your excess seeds at a tidy profit; the disadvantage is that they have all 5 needs, and don't drop amber.
I just had to plow under some of my plants, I took care of them daily, I went in and they were just plain dead while day before they were on way of elder. Shame to put all that work in plants and over night they die. I have blamed the game when they maintence game and open the test realm as it affects gardening a lot but they seem to not care. I do not know how many plants that just plain died over night and I did not want to revive and go through all that time over again so now I plow under. When these gardens are through I decided not to plant again, I have a number of red bell peppers and have not seen any amber drop, I have several silver trumpet vines and yet to see any amber drop. Matter fact I have not gotten one amber from any of the plants I have planted. When these gardens gone I work on my pets and get away from crafting and gardening as it is not what it should be. the game needs to make changes if they want me as a player to continue to play these assets of the game.
I think it's safe to say more players play the game for the challenge of it not for just the fun of it.
This leaves those of us who do play for the fun of it to seek our level.
Definitely they need to fix the "all your plants die" bug that happens every time they do server maintenance. Bunch of couch potatoes all mid-maturity, suddenly nearly dead and when I see to their needs, they are immature stage again.
The only plants not affected were the ones that were already elder or ready to harvest.
I tip my hat to Prairiefalcon who presents excellent points. You are correct about wintertusk crafting. (I missed wintertusk crafting my first time through because I had given up on crafting gear until I discovered the Zafaria stuff.)
And you are correct about the turquoise being available in the bazaar of course. What I meant was most reagents are easy to accumulate when you have unlimited wealth.... with a few exceptions. Turquoise being one of those exceptions.
Both crafting and gardening are worthwhile if a someone is planning to play in the wizard101 spiral universe for a long while. They don't seem like important activities for a first time wizard traveling through the first arc worlds. But if a player is in the game for the long haul then crafting and gardening are key elements for accessing wealth, in-game items, and special spells.
Happy Wizarding, hope to meet you in the spiral, Rottenheart
Just harvested my silver trumpet vines no regents fell, they are elder out thank goodness, now I can get rid of the garden and go on with game. I have removed some of the plots on my other wizards because it looks like gardening and crafting is a very extreme slow addition to game something I don't have time for. Some call it challenging, But like I said when they said a certain fight was challenging, I stood there and never got to return hit until they killed me, How challenging was that? So like with Gardening and crafting, call it challenging, I call it time consuming with little results.
Just harvested my silver trumpet vines no regents fell, they are elder out thank goodness, now I can get rid of the garden and go on with game. I have removed some of the plots on my other wizards because it looks like gardening and crafting is a very extreme slow addition to game something I don't have time for. Some call it challenging, But like I said when they said a certain fight was challenging, I stood there and never got to return hit until they killed me, How challenging was that? So like with Gardening and crafting, call it challenging, I call it time consuming with little results.
^^^ this.
so glad i'm not the only one who thinks crafting and gardening are a total waste of time and money. i have only one crafter, and refuse to put another wizard through that torture (balance is a trans crafter, and i cut my diviner off at dragonspyre~ that, and everything after it, are so nightmarishly time-consuming that i just couldn't bear to do it again).
i had a garden once, but i got rid of it ages ago~ it was too expensive to maintain and not at all worth the effort. but a friend of mine gave me 6 evil magma peas once, so i started gardening again, and those 6 little plants are more than enough for me.
by the spiral, thank ambrose that both of those, unlike those crazy fights, are optional.
so glad i'm not the only one who thinks crafting and gardening are a total waste of time and money. i have only one crafter, and refuse to put another wizard through that torture (balance is a trans crafter, and i cut my diviner off at dragonspyre~ that, and everything after it, are so nightmarishly time-consuming that i just couldn't bear to do it again).
i had a garden once, but i got rid of it ages ago~ it was too expensive to maintain and not at all worth the effort. but a friend of mine gave me 6 evil magma peas once, so i started gardening again, and those 6 little plants are more than enough for me.
by the spiral, thank ambrose that both of those, unlike those crazy fights, are optional.
-v.
Funny, because I feel exactly the same way about pet hatching/training. After spending umpteen ridiculous hours hatching and training 50+ pets to get a couple semi-reasonable pets suitable for the higher worlds has left me incapable of entering the pet pavilion anymore. Those pet training mini games... ughhhh.... fun playing for the first 500 times......... thank goodness we can shared-bank pets.
Crafting can be difficult, but many items can be had at the bazaar. They go quick so sniping is frustrating. My main beef is the crafted gear at higher levels gives up too much to get block. I think KI has been trying to backtrack since WW/WT gear being all around good. They are making you lose out in one area (power pips) for block for instance, while tossing in accuracy.
Gardening is awesome, and the only way to deal with the frustration of pets. I have had some terrible luck with pets lately, and it is only helped because EMPs give megas that make training that much easier. There are plenty of things on central that make it easy to garden a big plot, and for crafting spells, gardening is needed. Maybe your frustration lies with the test realm? I have never had plants go from no needs to the next day being dead or progress to dead.
Crafting is great, both for practical stuff like gear, and for fun stuff, like the houses and the stuff to put in houses. I enjoyed it up until Azteca, when reagents and ingredients became so rare I found it annoying. But you can get great gear in WT, and also some in Avalon, once you find the druid area.
Gardening I have had some fun with, but also some frustration. I suppose if you go all in like Rottenheart and have the time to care for hundreds of plants it can be quite rewarding. I find when I have time for regular play, gardening is fun. But if you have to be away from the game for any stretch of time, gardens die, and that is a small draw back for me.
Overall, both activities are worthwhile, in my opinion. Definitely not a mistake.
