Inscription

Ink for the mind, scrolls for the road

The ladder is three rungs of two: a caster tome for the offhand and a stamina scroll for anyone at all, first in sheenleaf, again in goldleaf, and once more in rare sunpetal at the top. The tomes are held stat sticks for the six mana classes, real Intellect and Spirit from the first rung; the scrolls are consumables with no class lock, so half of every rung sells to the whole realm.

On the craft ring it sits between Tailoring and Enchanting, giving it two pair identities: the Inkweaver (Tailoring and Inscription) and the Arcanist (Inscription and Enchanting). Neither has an oath quest yet, so today Inscription climbs as everyone's craft: the three rungs of the 0-to-50 ladder all sit inside the rare tier that undeclared crafts work under, so the ladder is open before any oath. Two things sit above that ceiling: the Sablewax Vellum, the 75-rung intermediate Verane also teaches, and the found-pattern rung above it; since neither pair can be sworn yet, today they teach nothing to anyone, so scribe them for the goods, not the points.

Herbs, ink, and a vial to hold it

The desk runs on herbalism and the breaking bench. Sheenleaf comes off the tier 1 herb patches of Eastbrook Vale, goldleaf from Mirefen Marsh, and sunpetal from Thornpeak Heights, ground into pigment with a Glass Vial, 12 copper from the apothecary master, in every recipe. The magical half of the ink comes off the breaking bench: Chime Dust settles the sheenleaf rung, Chime Essence the goldleaf and sunpetal rungs, and the sunpetal scroll binds a pinch of dust back in, so a scribe is an enchanter's steady customer, or keeps a disenchanting habit of their own.

The sunpetal rung refines both of its recipes: the rare grimoire takes two goldleaf besides its sunpetal, worked in to size the illuminations, and the double scroll batch takes a second essence with that pinch of dust and a Frost Gourd off the Highwatch terraces, which prices it even with the Elixir of the Serpent whose buff it mirrors. No counter sells the herbs, the dust or the gourd: they come out of the world, a garden bed or off another player; only the vial is bought for coin.

Taught beside the alembics

Inscription has no station of its own: the whole catalog is worked at the Highwatch apothecary, the same bench Alchemy brews at, and Alchemist Verane teaches it there. The ladder is six trainer recipes in three rungs: the sheenleaf rung (primer and scroll) is free at skill 0, the goldleaf rung (folio and scroll) costs 25 silver a recipe at skill 25, and the sunpetal rung (grimoire and scroll) costs 1 gold each at skill 50, each rung teachable the moment your tier in the craft reaches its own. The rung-50 scroll comes off the desk two at a time.

There are no field recipes and no combination piece yet: every taught rung is apothecary-bound trainer work, and the found-pattern rung above them is apothecary-bound too but bought nowhere, so this craft is learned, and practiced, standing where the alchemists stand.

How crafting works

Open the crafting window (default key T) and every recipe you know is listed with what it needs and what you have on hand. Station-bound recipes ask you to stand within 20 yards of the right station in town, field recipes craft anywhere, and Enchanting's breaking and enchanting need no station at all (only its three trainer recipes are station work, at the toolworks). There is no failure roll: a craft with the materials in hand always succeeds.

Two small frictions keep the economy honest. Every successful craft pays a fee of 2 copper per point of the item's stat budget, and every craft-family action takes real cast time (field crafts near two seconds, harder ladder crafts longer, and disenchant, enchant, salvage, and tool recharge each about a second and a half). Materials, the gold fee, stations, and skill ceilings do the rest; nothing scolds you for working too quickly.

Recipes

Every recipe of the craft: its exact skill requirement and materials, where it is learned and for what fee, and the three skill values where its gain fades to half, a quarter, and nothing.

Skill gain

Every recipe in the window wears its gain state in the classic colors: orange means full gain, yellow half, green a quarter, gray nothing. The boundaries are exact, every 25 skill is a tier, and a recipe fades one color for each tier it falls below yours.

Because gains are deterministic (a full-gain craft always moves you exactly one point), you can plan a whole climb from the list: work a rung while it is orange, train the next rung as it turns yellow, and never spend materials on a gray craft expecting progress. At the cap of 125 the number stops, but the recipes, the masterwork chance, and the profits keep working.

Masterworks

Every successful craft is exactly what the recipe promises, and sometimes a little more: a masterwork finishes the same piece one quality tier finer, with the bonus stats baked in at craft time. It is add-only, never a downgrade. Ordinary crafting follows its existing gear ladder; the raid-funded Crucible collections are a separate alternative at the current raid tier.

The apex Masterwrought crafts are the one exception, and they pay the same proc a different way. An apex piece already sits at the top of its ladder, so there is no finer tier to finish it in; a masterwork there hands the piece over one rank into Perfecting instead, a free first rank on the four-rank walk the Professions page describes. Nothing is baked into the stats, and the chance and its gates are the ones below.

The chance is published, not mystical: 3% base, plus 1% per tier your skill sits above the recipe, plus 2% when any signed reagent goes in, plus 3% once you are specialized, with higher-tier materials adding 1 to 2% more, all capped at 15%. Only a piece with real stats can improve, so statless commons, tools, and consumables never proc; a dormant craft never produces one, and a hobby craft cannot masterwork past its rare ceiling.

Fine work carries its maker. Rare and better outputs are signed, every copy (Crafted by; gathered materials carry Gathered by), a masterwork is always signed whatever its quality. A signature is provenance, not a lock: signed goods trade, mail, and list on the World Market freely.

Training

Trainer recipes come from the resident masters, taught at their stations. The rule is one line: a master teaches a recipe once your tier in the craft has reached the recipe's own tier, and nothing else gates it, not your level, not your archetype. The gear and consumable ladders run their rungs at skill 0, 25, and 50, and every craft adds one 75-rung intermediate above them, taught at its station (Enchanting's is the Lucent Reagent, beside its two charm recipes on the 25 rung); Engineering's two rod lessons continue its ladder at 75 and 125, so a fresh rung opens as your tiers climb.

Fees are one-time and flat by rung: the starting rung is free, the skill 25 rung costs 25s a recipe, the skill 50 rung 1g 0s, and the 75 and 125 rungs above them carry their own fees, listed beside each recipe in the table. You must stand at the master's actual station to train, and a mobile station never counts. The common field recipes and the six crafted land-tool recipes need no training at all; every character knows them from the start.

Specialization

At skill 75 this craft specializes you, no quest needed: discountable recipe materials cost 20% less from then on, and specialization adds its own bump to the masterwork chance. Raid-core costs are never discounted.

Specialists also learn to take the workshop with them: a specialized crafter can set up a mobile station in the field for ten minutes at a time, so station-bound recipes can be worked at the mine mouth instead of back in town. Its limits are deliberate: it never counts for training with a master or for unbinding a commissioned piece, and it expires on its timer whether or not you used it.

Scrolls, elixirs, and a working route to 125

The scrolls are the craft's signature rule: each rung's scroll grants exactly the buff of its band's stamina elixir (the boar, vipersear, and serpent bands), and the two sources share one slot on the buff bar. Reading a scroll over an elixir replaces it, drinking an elixir over a scroll replaces that, and the newest application always wins, so a scroll is an alternative door into the same buff, never a second stack on top of it.

The tomes carry real stat lines, so every tome craft rolls the masterwork chance so long as the finer quality fits inside your tier ceiling; the scrolls, statless consumables, never proc. The climb is the standard ride: sheenleaf to 25, the goldleaf rung the day it opens to 50, then sunpetal to 75. Above them sits an apex rung Verane does not teach: its pattern is found, not bought. Read that as a tome you can make, not a shortcut up the ladder: an apex pattern sits well over the rare ceiling every scribe works under today, and a recipe above your ceiling teaches nothing at all, so the skill it grants waits on this craft's pairs opening and Inscription becoming a major. Whichever you hold, the sunpetal recipes carry the climb, fading to half and then quarter gain: budget roughly 150 more crafts to reach the 125 cap, and fund them honestly, since the scrolls sell to every class in the game.

The Book of Deeds marks Written in Fine Ink for your first rare-tier piece, Quill and Pigment at 50 skill, and Grandmaster Inscription at the 125 cap.