Well first off you''ll want to figure out why you want to craft. Is it going to be a form of income, a way to be your own supplier or just something fun to make neat things.

From My experience I didn''t see crafting as a money maker, as opposed to the time put into it. A good portion of my income comes from harversting (or as I call it canning) materials for the different types of crafters.

Being your own supplier is more the route I took. Especially for Provisions. The higher up you get, the more you appreciate high quailty food and drink. Stuff that has a high regen rate and can last for a couple hrs per portion. A plus with provisioning is that you''re not as dependant on other tradeskillers to make what you want. You dont need an alchemist, metalsmith or carpenter as you do in other trades.
If you just want to make something neat. I''d suggest carpentry. Both because there''s some really nice objects you can make (totems as well as furniture) AND it''s going to be a future money maker IMO. Apparently apartments and houses that have high end furniture will get a break on the status points part of the rent. Also they''re playing around with the idea of high end furniture increasing the downtime vitality. Both things that end gamers (with cash) could probably use.

Bottom line however is do what ever is fun for you. It''s a game after all. I like the stove, other''s the forge. Play around with each and see what catches you interest.

Here''s a couple sites with some good crafting guides
http://eq2-artisan.com/index.php
http://eq2.eqtraders.com/articles/news_page.php

Don''t have an extensive knowledge on totems, I had a guildie make a couple of em for me however.
Totem of the Rat : increased mana regen and shapechange (shapechange didn''t work for me cause I''m already Ratonga)
Totem of the Otter : procs Enduring Breath....BUT it''s kinda nerfed, It''s for exploration only, as soon as you engage in a fight EB drops.

I would say if you AREN''t doing it to make a bunch of money, choose something that would make items you want.

Making furniture items would be pretty cool.

I started to get caught up in that craze (even though I was poor), I got a bone bed and chair. I also had 30 books from quests and stuff in my room and 10 mastery items.

Someone should name a healer ""Jesus"" and make him a carpenter.

Dammit, I hate being beat to the punchline. I''m just they asked him to change his name. He could always say it is pronounced ""h""ayzeus.

I have some experiance at being a scholar and recently they made it alittle harder to be a crafter on lower tiers (removing shaped items from vendor) but it''s not too bad.

I was planning to make my own runes (skill/spell upgrades for scouts including bards) at first it wasn''t bad with vendors saving crafting step on T1. on T2 i had to take a break harvesting but then i discovered i can get raw T2 resources from merchant system dirt cheap.

selling stuff wasn''t a problem i sold my t1 skills app 4 for 20-30 silver in both merchant system and auction channel. I just had to undercut everyone else to break the sale threshhold. in terms of profit it wasn''t much if i was mass producing it would have been more.

the main markets i see in EQ2 is the provisions market (food/drink) because they are consumed goods and everyone needs them. other than that alchemy making inks and other subcomponants potions/poisons , essances for fighters. anything consumable is good but expect alot of competition. you can even find a nitch making arrows.

in general the crafting system is highly time consuming and the time vs reward ratio would drive prices up. the only thing that may drive prices down are exploiters running bots (in my opinions they should be cremated alive). this market will lure alot of botters. don''t tell me it''s too hard to make because of the complexity of the system because it have already been done.

eq2 devs tried to make it hard on botters by making the crafting system interactive but because of the major time sink in it it lured more people to bot .

I take my rat steaks medium well.