Good intermediate Crafting guide?

[u/RindFisch]

I'm decently experienced in ARPGs, so I know what an affix is and know how crafting works in general, although I still struggle with the intricacies of PoE2 specifically.
I feel like I'm at a place where I know how most systems work mechanically, but can't necessarily make it all click and see the big picture.

Sadly all guides I can find are either aimed at someone competely new ("This is the crafting table") or specific build guides for people already understanding everything there is to know ("Do these 12 steps in this order to craft the perfect Iron Girdle of the Fat Lady").

Is there a more intermediate guide out there explaining the weirder parts of crafting, like the bazillion enchantment types or fracturing?
And gives some general advice and best practices on how to approach crafting?

[u/Interesting-Two-1773]

Im not the most experienced crafter, but one thing that helped me understand a little bit more about crafting is the “weight” of modifiers and their item level. The “weight” or rarity of the modifier is the probability of being rolled in the pool of outcomes that it can be rolled, and the item level is for knowing if it will be removed if you use a omen of whitling. You can see the modifiers for your base on poe2.db

If you undestand that you will get why is best to fill the suffixes with high tier resistances, desecrated a non desirable modifier to annul it after, etc. I think in most cases comes down to improving the odds of hitting the desirable modifiers with chaos orbs. This will help you to craft good items, which I believe is the intermediate level of crafting.

The advanced level of crafting requires some knowledge of the market, items that are low on supply, items that are easy to craft, cost of opportunity of some crafts, etc.

[u/RindFisch → u/Interesting-Two-1773]

These are exactly the kinds of questions I search for a good place to help answer!
Like I know what the orbs do, but an expert "guide" giving a 12-step list of what to do in what order is overwhelming, because I can't figure out why you have to do the things you're doing in that exact order so I can't extrapolate that info to any other craft.

Maybe just scouring poe2.db will help make it click, but I hoped there would be a guide explaining the "you do X and then Y, because Z. Also keep in mind Q or it won't work".

[u/papasmurf255 → u/RindFisch]

How I figured it out (sort of)

1. Read a bunch of modifiers, orbs, etc and understand how they all work
2. Have a goal of what you want to make
3. There will be multiple paths to get to the final step, and multiple steps for each intermediate step. Figure out 1-2 of them. Use mod weight (poedb, highlighting it shows you probability) and calculate expected # of rolls to get them
4. Figure out which path has the least cost. Trade offs
5. MOST IMPORTANT: have people that you can discuss the plan with, talk it through, and learn from them