• Introduction
• Dragon Craft Scales
• Mechanics
• Crafting Scale Sets - Basic
• Crafting Scale Sets - Advanced
• Boost Summary
• Biped Craft Suits
• Mechanics
• Set Types
• Crafting Armor Sets - Simple
• Crafting Armor Sets - Advanced
• Crafting Armor Sets - Epic
• Boost Summary

Introduction

In Istaria, dragons and bipeds have different - yet similar - ways of creating sets known as crafting scales or crafting armor. While simply slapping a technique on armor works, sometimes you need to really dig deep and min-max your skills to reach optimal in harder situations.

In this guide, I delve into creating the most min-maxed sets possible with the current in-game resources. I generally list two versions - a simpler less optimized version and a complex optimized version. Whichever version you wish to use is up to personal choice.

I've divided this document into two large sections - dragons and bipeds - since they differ so greatly. However, in each subsection, I've followed a pattern.

Mechanics is where I explain my reasoning for each set, as well as some general math involved in each section. This helps give the 'why' behind the 'how' of the armor. It's not necessary to know and can easily be skipped.

Simple sets are the less optimized, but more common and simple versions of crafting sets that get the job done.

Advanced sets are the most optimized and min-maxed sets that give the highest bonus, but are harder to make.

In bipeds, the extra section set types lists the armor pieces that different sets of crafting techniques can be applied to for reference.

I hope this guide comes across as informative and helpful to all your crazy crafters out there. It's intended for max level characters to max out their skills, but people leveling classes can refer to the 'simple' sections for creating craft gear for leveling up as well, with some modifications. (Bipeds can technically use the advanced version too, but that would be a lot of coin for something simple if you're crafting below T5.)

Dragon Craft Scales

In comparison to bipeds, as usual, dragons are very simple. Their ten scales can be techniqued with every crafting technique in any combination. The primary difference from bipeds, however, is that dragon scales have a statistical boost built into each scale. Since statistics play into boosting your skills, it is favorable to create more scale sets with the trade-off that each scale set has techniques on it that get boosted by the stastistic the scale is as well as any socketed crystals and benevolences.

To see an explanation of which skills are boosted by which statistics, read on. If you are uninterested and simply want to see what the optimized combinations are, skip ahead to this section.

Mechanics

Dragons have access to 13 crafting techniques, reflecting their 13 skills. However, two are useless; transmutation (dragons will essentially never use this skill except for the Rite of Passage) and salvaging (you don't need salvaging to craft, only to deconstruct, and thus don't need to boost it). Each of these skills are affected by at least two of four statistics; Power, Focus, Strength, and Dexterity. The 'primary' statistic is what I use to refer to the statistic that affects each crafting skill the most. For example, Smelting is affected by a mix of 8% Strength and 2% Power. For every 1000 Strength you gain, you will gain 80 Smelting, while for every 1000 Power, you gain 20. Thus, Strength is its primary statistic.

This information is used to determine what statistic the scales the skills are teched on should be. In the end, it adds only between 10 and 20 extra skill, but that is still skill you do not have that you could have. Only primary statistics play enough of a part to be considered seriously in most cases - once you start getting below 5%, the ~125 of a secondary attribute techniqued on your scales will only net you about 6 skill or less.

To further min-max your skills, it is also favorable to utilize a combination of Priceless Scales and T5 statistic scales. Since that's not feasible for all people, I've included both versions below.

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Crafting Scale Sets - Basic

On all of the below, the Power V / Focus V techniques are optional. On wings, they can be replaced with Speed V or Velocity V. The difference is minimal, but I've included it for people who truly want to min-max.

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Crafting Scale Sets - Advanced

The following sets are about as min-maxed as you can get in Istaria's current state with Priceless scales. To craft all of them, you are going to need a lot of broken scales, so be prepared to spend a lot of time grinding!

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Bonus Summary

Listed below are the calculated bonuses of each set. The actual bonus amount may vary slightly, depending on how nice Istaria is with how linear its calculations play out. This, at least, should be a general 'minimum' bonus.

Simple Sets

Advanced Sets

Biped Craft Suits

Bipeds are complicated in the fact that they have access to 39 craft skills, of which approximately 37 are used regularly in crafting. (The excluded two - Transmutation and Salvaging - are used, but do not require any boosting / are not used often.)

While all crafting skills by bipeds are also affected by statistics just like dragons are, the sheer amount of sets, variations among the sets, lack of socketing, and general complexity makes it unfeasible to further min-max crafting sets by applying statistic techniques and crystals. Instead, it is overall better to focus on crafting as few sets as possible with as many techniques on one as possible.

I have yet to not reach optimal on an item using a set techniqued in this sort of way, so these should help you reach optimal in anything you require as a GMC. I cannot, however, promise it will help you reach optimal without a class maxed out that gives the max skill per level you are looking for.

The lack of crystals and statistics does not make biped gear any less complicated, however; in fact, it makes it harder to wrap your head around. If you simply want to know what to put on each set, please simply skip to the craft set subsection and reference Set Types for which pieces you need per listed set type.

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Mechanics

Unlike dragons, bipeds have more than 10 equipment slots between armor and jewelry. In order to counteract bipeds being able to have more of a boost from all of their armor than dragons can gain from their scales, biped armor and jewelry pieces are segregated into three 'subclasses' of the overall technique repertoire. What this means is that there are three combinations of armor pieces and jewelry that equate to ten pieces, each taking specific techniques and excluding some others.

I refer to these as "set types". Each set type has a specific collection of skills assigned to it. To make things easier, I refer to each set type with a letter.

Set Type "A" contains all of the refining skills; these are all of the skills that take materials and refine them into finalized products, or specialized products that are used in a final product. (Such as tinkering hinges used to make cargo disks)

Set Type "B" contains all of the raw resource harvesting skills.

Set Type "C" contains all of the processing skills; these are the skills involved in making raw resources into refined materials, such as metal bars or stone bricks.

In the next subsection, I list the particular pieces of armor that the techniques in each set are able to be applied to.

Note that you can further min-max your crafting sets by adding Benevolence techniques. These techniques have their own set of armor they can be applied to, and give a bonus of +10 to a selection of 3 skills or +15 to 2 skills. As the full sets listed above combined with Expert crafting stations has given me optimal on everything, they are not truly necessary for a GMC.

Despite the lack of necessity, Benevolances still add extra skill to perhaps make you optimal on higher tier materials out in the field. Therefore, I have written two sections. The 'simple' biped armor is a combination of sets that make logical sense, but lack benevolences and therefore gives less overall skill. It is, however, simpler and has less armor pieces overall, saving on stack space.

The 'advanced' armor is a combination of sets that utilizes benevolences to their furthest extent, giving the biggest bonus, but also taking up the most stack space.

Finally, it is possible to min-max your armor even further by messing with mix-matching the Master Crafter's Cargo gear. Individual pieces can give up to 200 skill, allowing you to mix-match to get bonuses of multiple hundred very easily. You likely won't ever need this much skill, but it's fun to know regardless.

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Set Types

For the sake of organisation, I have labeled the three set types with a letter. Below, I list what these letters represent and what pieces of armor the sets contain. This section is sheerly meant for reference for further sections.

Unlike dragons, I will not be including specific tools here as they are very varied and shared between classes. No one tool will line up with one technique set cleanly.

However, you should be able to take a tool and give it the technique of any set type. It has no restrictions. Your order of importance should be first Cogs, and then Techniques.

• Type A: Refining Skills
  • Belt
  • Cap
  • Cape
  • Gloves
  • Tunic
  • Bracelet (2x)
  • Earring (2x)
  • Necklace
• Type B: Harvesting Skills
  • Belt
  • Boots
  • Gloves
  • Mask
  • Earring (2x)
  • Necklace
  • Ring (2x)
  • Fabric Sack
• Type C: Processing Skills
  • Belt
  • Gloves
  • Leggings
  • Shoulderpads (2x)
  • Sleeves
  • Necklace
  • Ring (2x)
• Bonus Type: Benevolences
  • Cap
  • Cape
  • Gloves
  • Tunic
  • Bracelet (2x)
  • Earring (2x)
  • Necklace
  • Fabric Sack
• Master Crafter's Cargo Gear
  • Belt
  • Boots
  • Gloves
  • Leggings
  • Sleeves
  • Tunic
  • Wristband

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Crafting Armor Sets - Simple

In order to avoid clutter, I will simply be writing these combinations of techniques in list form labeled with a set type. For reference on which pieces of armor each set types contains, refer to the section above.

I have tried my best to make the combinations of skills make sense. For example, I have grouped Armorcraft, Weaponcraft, and Metalworking together as they all make equippable items out of metal (primarily) - armor, weapons, and tools.

Techniques within a set type can be exchanged with each other. If you, for example, prefer to have Alchemy on your set with Cooking and Sculpting, you can simply create a Spellcraft/Jewelcraft set and a Cooking/Sculpting/Alchemy set instead of an Alchemy/Spellcraft/Jewelcraft set and a Cooking/Sculpting set. However, you cannot interchange techniques between set types.

Type A - Refining Skills

• Alchemy, Spellcraft, Jewelcraft
• Armorcraft, Weaponcraft, Metalworking
• Capentry, Essence Structuring, Masonry
• Clothworking, Leatherworking, Tailoring
• Fitting, Weaving, Tinkering
• Woodworking, Fletching, Scribing
• Cooking, Sculpting

Type B - Harvesting Skills

Since this is a gathering set, it is recommended you use cargo gear where possible instead of cloth!

• Logging, Mining, Quarrying
• Essence Harvesting, Fishing, Foraging

Type C - Processing Skills

• Stoneworking, Smelting, Lumbering
• Essence Shaping, Enchanting, Earthencraft
• Gemworking, Spinning, Tanning
• Papermaking, Preparing

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Crafting Armor Sets - Advanced

The armor sets listed below will be unlikely to make any logical sense in their combination of techniques, but they have been carefully cherry-picked to ensure that every set has as many skills covered as possible with as few techniques as possible.

To my knowledge, this is one of the best ways to set up your gear to min-max your armor. As there are 13 sets, it would cause a large amount of clutter to list every single one out individually. Therefore, I will create a template to be filled in with the specific techniques for each armor set.

For each item listed under 'crafting techniques', apply the "Craft: Skill V" techniques. For each listed under 'benevolences', apply the "Name's Benevolence" technique.

Tools cannot have Benevolences techniqued onto them, but they can have regular

Type A + Benevolences

• Crafting Techniques
  • Belt
  • Cap
  • Cape
  • Gloves
  • Tunic
  • Bracelet (2x)
  • Earring (2x)
  • Necklace
• Benevolences
  • Fabric Sack

Type A Technique Setup

• Spellcrafting V, Scribing V, Alchemy V :: Alchemist's Benevolence and Scholar's Benevolence
• Fitting V, Metalworking V, Carpentry V :: Fitter's Benevolence and Carpenter's Benevolence
• Cooking V, Fletching V, Woodworking V :: Confectioner's Benevolence and Fletcher's Benevolence
• Tinkering V, Weaponcraft V, Weaving V :: Weaver's Benevolence, Tinkerer's Benevolence, and Weaponsmith's Benevolence
• Jewelcraft V, Masonry V, Sculpting V :: Jeweler's Benevolence and Mason's Benevolence
• Armorcraft V, Tailoring V :: Tailor's Benevolence, and Armorer's Benevolence
• Leatherworking V, Clothworking V :: No Applicable Benevolences

Type B + Benevolences

• Crafting Techniques
  • Belt
  • Boots
  • Gloves
  • Mask
  • Earring (2x)
  • Necklace
  • Ring (2x)
  • Fabric Sack
• Benevolences
  • Cap
  • Cape
  • Tunic
  • Bracelet (2x)

Type B Technique Setup

• Mining V, Quarrying V, Logging V :: Miner's Benevolence and Gatherer's Benevolence
• Essence Harvesting V, Fishing V, Foraging V :: Miner's Benevolence and Gatherer's Benevolence (Note: You can only craft one Benevolence set and share it between both gathering sets.)

Type C + Benevolences

• Crafting Techniques
  • Belt
  • Gloves
  • Leggings
  • Shoulderpads (2x)
  • Sleeves
  • Necklace
  • Ring (2x)
• Benevolences
  • Cap
  • Cape
  • Tunic
  • Bracelet (2x)
  • Earring (2x)
  • Fabric Sack

Type C Technique Setup

• Gemworking V, Smelting V, Enchanting V :: Enchanter's Benevolence and Jeweler's Benevolence
• Earthencraft V, Essence Shaping V, Tanning V :: Fletcher's Benevolence and Weaver's Benevolence
• Stoneworking V, Spinning V :: Spellcrafter's and Weaver's Benevolence
• Papermaking V, Preparing V :: Scholar's Benevolence

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Crafting Armor Sets - Epic Armor Mixing

To get the most out of any skill, you will have to be a GMC and own the Epic Crafter's Cargo armor. This is extremely expensive, needing over 600 total epic resources, 990 tokens, and various technique components. Mixed with regular T5 armor, however, there is simply no competition.

As listed in the set types section, it only takes up nine total pieces of armor, leaving at least one slot plus jewelry for other techniques. Furthermore, every skill only appears once per armor piece, meaning that you can be particular about the pieces of armor you choose and thus only replace three pieces of armor, at worst, or one at best.

Again, I want to stress that this amount of min-maxing is really not necessary to reach optimal. I reach optimal stoneworking with just the epic gear without any buffs. However, in case anything is added that needs a ton of skill, I've documented this overdone set regardless.

Type A

Type B

Type C

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Bonus Summary

Listed below are the calculated bonuses of each set, split by set type. I've added tools into consideration, but seperately so you can see the bonus with and without techniqued tools.

Simple and Advanced Sets

Epic Sets

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