QUOTE(Teddysaur @ Jan 15 2021, 01:52 AM)
everytime I will be like okay I'm gonna craft
then ill be like eh??? how?
I'm no expert in this matter, cuz end-game crafting is frankly, quite out of reach for filthy casual like me due to the cost & rarity of exotic currencies, or just plain pain in the ass to grind to access it.
While there are some systematic crafting methods,
in most cases it is just a slam of RNG lottery. Those systematic methods may just helps you to REDUCE then RNG-ness by cutting out unwanted results from the pool-of-potentials.
but at the least you need to be aware of crafting stuff you can access to make your own gear, instead of just buy everything from other people.
The first and foremost things you need to know is:
what mods do you want on a piece of gear?Because different mods came from different sources, or different league content update. Know what you want to make is the first step.
Click the "Craft of Exile" link in my signature, that tool will help you to decide / know how to get the specific mod onto your item.

You will see something like above after picking a base item.
As you should already aware every [rare] item have 3 prefix & 3 suffix. And every of the mod have [ITEM LEVEL / iLvl] requirement.
If you want the best [T1] mod to appear on an item, of course, you want to use a base item of high iLvl over 80, typically came from red-tier-maps.
And then when you open the list of those [shaper], [elder], [redeemer], [crusader], [warlord], [hunter]... those are additional pool of mods provided by those [influenced] items.
An item must be [influenced] to roll these mods, these item have "special background" on their icon you probably seen some of them already.
[Incursion] mods only drop from inside Temple of Atzoalt - the Alva's busy work. Specifically from room's chest & boss.
Delve may also drop these on related rooms.
[Crafted] list is the whole damn syndicate [unveil] bullshit, aside from the various recipes you found while in story mode.
[Delve] mods are from specific fossil.
[Essence] & [Vaal] don't think I need to explain them... they are common enough.
//--
In most cases, filthy casual like me just Alc/Chaos slam an item and hope for the best. Alc/Chaos is plentiful enough it's not too big of an issue. Or Essence & Delve Fossil slam.
Then if hit a potentially good item, go patch it up on the crafting station. Maybe the [boot] have triple 40% resist but don't have move speed - you can craft 24% movespeed on the crafting station. And then maybe slam an Exalted Orb on it and hope for Life...
Or maybe I want to make a high-ES armor; the first step is to raise the quality of the base item by using related fossil (can go up to 40%).
Then slam the item with Alc/Chaos, or combination of Fossil to guarantee ES type mods.
After you got decently high tier of ES mods, then see if you patch it up in crafting station see if there mods to helps raise the ES further.
This post has been edited by digitalifelesss: Jan 15 2021, 10:16 AM