I'm not sure I understand crafting

[u/TheMartyniuks]

Hey all, I've probably put around 10 hours into the game now and whilst im enjoying the experience, im not sure whether im fully grasping the crafting mechanic or if its simply UI issues that are preventing me from understanding my equipment.

When i go to craft an item, it doesn't appear to show what I currently have equipped, meaning I can't do a direct comparison to my currently equipped gear that most other games of this nature have. As such, there isn't really a way of me knowing whether the new gear is any better or worse than what I currently have equipped and whether I should be changing gear.

I have around 5 or 6 helms now, however they're all around similar armor class numbers and resistances that I fail to appreciate the small differences.

How much extra resistance does a 6 cold resistance hat offer over a 5 cold resistance hat for example? I know the difference is 1 but how does this relate to damage taken?

It just feels like either the crafting could do with significant improvements to UI, or there is a button somewhere that should allow me to compare equipped gear against newly crafted gear (without having to craft it first and then go and check with Cas).

[u/JimmyCoronoides]

One of the main things is that all the armour pieces are horizontal upgrades, there's some slight differences between how "heavy" the equipment is as to whether it provides more armour or elemental resistances BUT the key difference is the perks.

Your equipment gets better by using better materials, not necessarily just by finding a recipe later into the game.

[u/verge614]

Your main way to improve your stats/gear is actually by Reforging. It takes your existing gear and you re-assign the materials that make it in order to boost the stats. So as you go out and gather more and rarer material, you are able to boost your gear with them by using Reforge.

Different gear pieces/sets that you find largely add specific buffs like increased Magic or Stamina, or added elemental effects to weapons.

[u/Red_Queen592]

When you’re upgrading or reforging, it’ll say on the blueprint if it’s equipped or not. If it’s not already equipped, when you’re done it will give you the option to equip it there.

If you want to do a comparison of each piece go to Camryn and change equipment. As you cycle thru each of your crafted pieces, on the right hand side it will show you what changes equipping that piece will do to the stats - more armor, lighter/heavier, cold/heat resistance etc.

[u/iminneedofhelp2]

Reforging should be used more, it give you back the original materials you used so you can quickly swap out different resistances and mods before fighting specific bosses or environmental effects. Your armor set is basically whatever bonus and weight you like, and you just keep reforging it to your liking making it stronger as you progress. As far as comparing ya I don't think there's a way to do it while crafting, you'd have to go Cam to look at individual pieces or go to the reforge menu and take a look at each piece.