Beginner’s Guide to Butchering

The next in my series of “Beginner’s Guides” for WAR:  Butchering.

This Gathering profession recently got a lot of love and had a few of its fundamentals changed, so, Trial player or Veteran, it’s a good time to take a look at it.

Enjoy!

~Gaar

Quick Explanation of Crafting in WAR

WAR has a two-stage crafting system.  The first stage is handled through a “gathering” profession and the second stage is the actual “crafting” profession.

Here’s the rundown:

Apothecary – Crafting Profession – Makes potions with various temporary effects.

• Butchering – Gathering Profession – Harvests monsters for items to use in making potions.
• Cultivation – Gathering Profession – Grows plants and fungi to use in making potions.

Talisman Making – Crafting Profession – Makes talismans that can be added to worn items to boost stats.

• Magical Salvaging – Gathering Profession – Deconstructs items for the parts to use in making talismans.
• Scavenging – Gathering Profession – Harvests players/NPCs for items to use in making talismans.

At the time this guide was created, all Gathering professions were viable for use in each of their respective Crafting professions.  However, each Crafting profession has its own pros and cons, as does each gathering profession.  It is best to understand those pros/cons before selecting your professions, however you are able to change both your Crafting and Gathering profession at any time (however at the loss of all progress).

Crafting Storage

Most of the items you will use in your crafting will be tradeable, thus can be stored not just in your own inventory, but also your Personal Bank Vault and your Guild Bank Vault.  The exception to this rule currently are the Hybrid Seeds that are looted in Tier 4.

You have two options now for storing them in your personal inventory though.  Crafting items will automatically (upon purchase/loot) go to your Crafting Item Inventory.  This is the third tab of your Backpack as shown in the picture below.

This special inventory space starts with only one bag, but you gain more bags by leveling your crafting professions.  You gain a new bag for each 100 points you earn in each profession, giving you a total of five bags when you’re done.

If you run out of space here, items will start to automatically go into your regular inventory.  Items can be moved back and forth between the two types of personal storage areas by right-clicking on them.

Finally, no discussion of Crafting Storage would be complete without mentioning the Mail System.  :p

All tradeable items can be sent back and forth between alts (alternate characters on your account) and friends, then left in your mailbox unopened for a good deal of time.  Proper mailbox use can extend your personal storage space for tradeable items infinitely.

Selecting your Crafting and Gathering Professions

As a new player, your first exposure to Crafting trainers comes in Chapter 2 of the WAR Story.  (The PvE towns in WAR are designated as Chapters and the PvE road moves you through these Chapters in sequential order.)  If you are on a Trial Account, this is the only place you can learn these professions.

Those players with subscriptions to WAR can also train in their Capital City (Altdorf or the Inevitible City).

It costs no money to train or re-train a Crafting profession.  You can change your profession at any time, however you will lose all progress you have made in that profession.

The Apothecary, Cultivator and Hedge Wizard (Talisman Making) trainers also are Merchants selling items for their respective craft.

Once you’ve made your choice, it’s time to level your profession(s).  For the sake of this guide, let’s assume you’ve made Butchering your Gathering profession and Apothecary your Crafting profession.

Butchering Overview

Butchering is just what it sounds like: chopping up “animals” to get ingredients to make potions with.

Butchering is what I refer to as a “pure” Gathering profession in that there is just one real stage to it.  Once an animal is dead, you butcher it and loot the ingredients.  No other work is required.

Butchering has just had a revamp that has made it far more viable as a Gathering profession to use with Apothecary.  It’s not as RvR-friendly as Cultivating though as you are not able to butcher players.  You can butcher their pets though, so you do occasionally get something in RvR, it’s just not a viable way to gain ingredients.

Butchering is very much a “farming” profession.  Whether you’re solo or with friends, you’ll really have to have the patience and endurance to kill hundreds, if not thousands, of animals repeatedly to really mass-produce what you want.  That being said, there are lots of areas one can solo-kill creatures in large amounts (example:  Public Quests, Land of the Dead, etc).

Note:  Because Butchering is a “farming” profession, it’s also a great source of income.  The loot you receive from the monsters, as well as excess ingredients you don’t need, can be sold to either NPC Merchants or other players to make money.

Good butchers are very knowledgeable about their craft.  They have to be since different animals drop different ingredients.  Knowing which drops what and where the best places to farm are almost trade secrets of butchering, albeit ones many are willing to share due to the perseverance required to truly dominate the butchering market.

Lastly, Butchering provides the Pigments required to make some much-sought-after Dyes: six of the Dark series of Dyes.  Previously, these were only available one at a time from certain quests, so these are a very welcome addition to the profession.

Must-Have Addons for Butchering

There really is only one Addon you need to have for Butchering:  Crafting Info Tooltip.

To be honest, it’s a must-have for all Crafting/Gathering professions.  It’s just that good.

Why?  Because it shows you the “hidden” crafting information for each item when you hover over them in your inventory.  This is invaluable information for all crafters, especially when you want to make very specific things and at maximum potency.  Understanding the information it provides is the key to being a great crafter.

Go to Curse.com and do a search for this Addon and download it.  I prefer to manually install all my Addons.  It’s not difficult.  However, if you’d rather not, you can use the Curse Client instead.  (I’m not a fan as it’s always had issues on Patch Day when the new versions of addons come out and the old ones don’t always work.)

Leveling Butchering

Once you’ve trained the Butchering profession and have your Addon downloaded and in the right folder, it’s time to go out and kill some stuff!

Really.  It’s that easy.

Note:  Make sure the animal’s level is close to your own.  You can level off animals up to five levels below you, however keeping the level at or above your own will also get you more regular experience to help you level your Rank along with Butcherings.  Killing things far weaker than you doesn’t help you level, but it will still provide you with ingredients, just ones appropriate to that level.

Once you’ve got your animal good and dead, loot it completely.  Once done, you’ll see flies appear over the dead body (if it’s butcher-able that is).  The animation makes it really easy to see if what you’re killing is something you can butcher.

Move your cursor over the dead body and it will turn into a meat cleaver.  hehe.  Right-Click to butcher it and be sure to loot it all.  Certain creatures will even allow you to butcher them multiple times now which makes it both easier to level as well as easier to obtain large amounts of ingredients since it now requires fewer kills.

Once you’ve taken everything you can from the body, it disappears completely.

One thing to keep in mind is that leveling Butchering will be a slow process if you’re truly picking it up as a new player in Tier 1.  This is because your skill raises based on the level of creatures you’re killing/butchering.  You won’t reach 200 Butchering without killing animals in Tier 4.

Sample Butchering Drop List

As previously stated, part of being a good Butcher is knowing which items you get where.  Here’s a small list to help you on your way!

• Bats – Force Shield and Restoration ingredients
• Bears – Strength and Invigoration ingredients
• Birds – Ballistic Skill and Glue Bomb ingredients
• Boars – Restoration and Strength ingredients
• Canines – Invigoration and Willpower ingredients
• Daemon Beasts – Resist potion ingredients
• Dragons – Toughness and Molotov ingredients
• Felines – Willpower and Ballistic Skill ingredients
• Insects & Arachnids – Armor and Toughness ingredients
• Magical Beasts – Healing and Thorn ingredients
• Reptiles – Molotov and Thorn ingredients
• Rodents – Glue Bomb and Intelligence ingredients
• Squigs – Healing and Intelligence ingredients

Advanced Butchering

Once you’ve leveled your Butchering skill to 200, you’re ready to learn more!

The best thing to do is to go to the following web sites and read up on the information they have to offer.  They are also places you can ask for more information on things that you aren’t sure about.

Also, don’t forget to use your in-game Advice channel as well!

Official Forums for Butchering

Warhammer Alliance Forums for Butchering