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[PDF urist master]

I've been thinking about strange moods lately and wanted to rank them. i based this system on generally usefulness of the legendary (excluding possessed moods), usefulness of the artifact and general availability of resources.

1 ) weaponsmith
2 ) armorsmith
3 ) bowyer
4 ) mechanic
5 ) mason
6 ) glassmaker
7 ) blacksmith
8 ) engraver
9 ) carpenter
10 ) bone carver
11 ) stonecrafter
12 ) gem cutter/gem setter
13) leatherworker
14 ) clothier
15 ) miner
16 ) woodcrafter
17 ) metal crafter
18 ) weaver
19 ) tanner

[smjjames]

Personally I would rank woodcrafter last, also miner moods produce the same things as mason moods, so in terms of artifact usefulness, those are equal to mason moods.

[Hetairos]

Miner moods give you a legendary miner, though. I'd put them at a higher place than mason moods, unless you're making a megaproject and need to crank out blocks at a ludicrous speed.

Why is mechanic so high? I don't really know what to do with artifact mechanisms.

[Putnam]

Put them in a weapon trap inside a noble's room to appease the noble. You can also do that with the more useless weapon moods.

[PDF urist master]

mechanism are very useful if you're trap oriented, like I am. also, mechanisms have a base value of 30, which is higher than most, if not all other furniture.

I put miner fairly low because it's usually not hard to train miner and miner doesn't really affect quality levels. a legendary engraver can produce high quality engravings that spike up room value. personally, a legendary miner is more expendable than a engraver since i don't care how fast things get mined.

[BlackFlyme]

Turns out there are twenty mood-able skills. I never paid too much attention, outside of making sure mooders had their materials, so this is news to me.

Spoiler: I have slightly different rankings. (click to show/hide)

1    Weapon smith is obvious.

2    Armour smith is too.

3    Bowyer. It's quality > material for all ranged weapon rolls, unlike melee weapons. I could arguably make this #1, but you can't aim bows like you can weapons, so my adventurers can't get as much use out of them.

4    Bone carver can sometimes make armour, which isn't that good compared to metal, but I think it's awesome. Plus it's where most of my bolts come from, so I want good quality.

5    Leather worker. Indestructible armour is always a plus. And making large batches of clothes will be faster.

6    Clothier. Again, for the potential to clothe my fort.

7    Engraver. Not for the artifacts, they are only ever trinkets. But a fast engraver is always a bonus, since I find it a pain to grind up.

8    Miner. Always nice, but I usually have more miners than engravers. At least they make furniture, unlike engravers.

9    Metal smith. Metal furniture is worth much more than most other furniture, good for bringing up the value of a room.

10  Mason. Stone furniture is probably the most common type of furniture used in a fort, and can carry decent value.

11  Carpenter. Where my shields usually come from. Plus the furniture usually isn't too bad.

12  Mechanic. I don't have much of a use for mechanisms, but a highly skilled mechanic can link things up pretty fast.

13  Tanners can make armour, like leather workers. But tanning doesn't take that long, so high skill doesn't matter too much to me.

14  Weavers can't make armour and, like tanners, don't take much time to do their job.

15  Metal crafter. Metal trinkets have good value, at least.

16  Gem cutters usually make useless junk. Sometimes you get furniture, though. Maybe this should be rated higher, just because they can make furniture. I once had a ruby chest, it was awesome.

17  Gem setter. They honestly don't see use in my forts. They have a chance to make furniture, though. Plus there is the issue wherein glass goods other than cut gems cannot be stockpiled.

18  Glass maker. Glass is low value, but furniture is nice. Nicer than stone or wood, anyways.

19  Stone crafter. Stone crap. Great. Using up all my ore and coal, the jerks.

20  Wood crafter. Wood crap. Great. At least nothing valuable is used up. Usually.

[PDF urist master]

There are 20. i just put gem setter and cutter together.

a reason I put glassmaker so high is that they can make trap components. this can come in handy on maps with sand yet no metals. glass furniture also looks awesome in ASCII which is a bonus.

bone carver can also make weapons, which is why he's the highest out of all of my crafters. one of them made an artifact bone crossbow, which was awesome. A reason leather worker is so low on my list is that leather had always been pretty hard to come by, and leather armor does crap even when compared to wooden armor. Metal crafter is the lowest craftdwarf on my list because they waste valuable metal that i could be using on other stuff, like weapons or furniture (at least dwarves can admire furniture)

Metal mechanisms require the mechanics labor. since mechanisms are worth a dickload, you get the idea.

[BlackFlyme]

I actually really like glass making, but it can be a pain to set up early on, due to a lack of bags and coal. Though I don't believe I've ever used glass trap components much. I usually prefer cages, even if they are over powered.

I use the more leather mod, so I'm usually swimming in skin. I think it actually gives too much leather, actually.

Still, you are right about the metal crafters. The only reason it's higher than other crafters is because metals carry a higher value.

[Repseki]

Mine are a little different, but not anything crazy. Besides the common Weapons/Armor, I usually prefer getting furniture of some sort out of a mood, which is usually placed where-ever the King/Queen will eventually be staying. Until they arrive it can be a good place to put anyone that gets really cranky too.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

1. Weaponsmith, duh

2. Armorsmithing, duh

3. Mason (Furniture, and where most of the tables/thrones come from)

4. Miner (Furniture, they're legendary before they mood half the time anyway)

5. Glassmaker (Lower if there isn't any sand)

6. Carpenter (Furniture, even if it is made from wood)

7. Engraver (Only because they can be slow to train, although I usually start early with a few "admires tradition")

8. Metalsmith. (Good furniture, but a chance to use needed metals, and not really used much besides the mood.)

9. Mechanic. (Don't often need artifact mechanisms, but the faster the mechanic the better.)

10. Leatherworker. (Can make armor. Only really use them if cloth is scarce compared to abundant critters to kill and skin. More leather mod as well.)

11. Clothier. (Probably should be higher as clothes are kinda important, but I somewhat fear the rot of masterpiece')

12. Tanner. (Chance for armor I guess)

13. Weaver. (Mostly indifferent to them, unless they make something especially cool. The silk farm trains them up rather quickly once I can get it set up.)

14. Bowyer. (Kinda indifferent. If you could aim them in Adventure Mode it would definitely be higher, but never really use them.)

15. Metal crafter. (Higher value stuff, if I can find someone who likes chains it can be useful for a good jail)

16./17. Gem Cutter/Setter. (Don't really use them, but there is a chance for furniture)

18. Stone crafter. (You used the last piece of steel, and the only coal stone we have to make what?)

19. Bone carver. (Just no. Don't use them, even for bolts. Only above Wood crafting because that's wood.)

20. Wood crafter. (Crafts... Wood... Wasted Mood...)

[Sutremaine]

I was hoping this'd be mood priority rankings... I had a dwarf who had higher weapon or armoursmithing than engraving, with both at Dabbling level. When she mooded, she had an Engraver mood.

Assuming there are enough raw materials to be able to use the mooded skill, and that the mood gives XP:

1 ) Weaponsmith / Armoursmith
On the one hand, armour is more useful for its protective qualities. On the other, it can be raised more quickly without a mood, because you can make two items with one job and get more XP. On the third hand, artifact weapons are generally better, unless you can accumulate a full set of steel or adamantine armour, or a heavy artifact shield.

3 ) Glassmaker
Glass can be used to make a lot of different things, and the relative weakness of glass trap components can be compensated for by making a whole lot of them.

4 ) Bone Carver (better when early)
The artifact itself is rarely anything useful, but due to my liking for an armed populace I get through a lot of bolts. As with glass, quantity makes up for a lack of material quality, and there's not much else to do with bone anyway. There's nothing else to do with hooves, horns, and skulls.

5 ) Leatherworker
Leather is another multi-purpose material, and having a dwarf who can churn out good leather items leaves you really nice items to use yourself, and not-so-nice items that are still moderately valuable. Leather items can also fill a bin without making it too heavy, which is a nice bonus.

6 ) Bowyer (worse when late)
Good-quality wood or bone crossbows are very nice early on, after you've slaughtered the pack animals and before you've set up a metal industry. The skill becomes more redundant as you get more access to good metal crossbows, but wood or bone crossbows remain useful for dwarves who'll never have to go into melee.

7 ) Mechanic (better when early)
Artifact mechanisms are like statues that you can weaponise, and skill makes a huge difference in the time it takes to link mechanisms. It's a solid skill to mood in, but a little dull.

8 ) Clothier (jackpot in first three seasons)
Cloth just about has a higher average monetary value than leather for me, since you can get hold of loads and loads of moderate-value plant cloth more easily than you can the more valuable leathers. If you can get a mood in this before the dwarven caravan comes, you can buy cloth from them and convert it into high-value crafts right next to the depot.

9 ) Tanner (much better when early)
Skins rot really quickly, so having a dwarf who can get the job done quickly is good. Later on you can have enough labour to allow one dwarf per untanned skin, but a dwarf who can tear through a pile of skins and free up the low-skill dwarves is still useful.

10 ) Miner (better when dwarf isn't already Legendary...)
Legendary miners are good, but they skill up so quickly that you'll be lucky to get a Miner mood on a low-skill dwarf. At least you get a practical artifact.

11 ) Carpenter (prefer to have early)
Not much to say about this one -- I make beds, bins, and minecarts only as I need them, and the quality doesn't really matter.

12 ) Mason (better when early)
A Legendary mason early on can churn out blocks and make some really nice furniture, but as you get more dwarves for block-making and more value boosters for rooms the skill stands out less.

13 ) Weaver (much better with a good Clothier)
Clothing is an industry I use mostly for its value, and a good weaver makes valuable cloth. They're very useful in a fortress I've geared towards cloth production, but lately I've been using other industries for trade items.

14 ) Woodcrafter
Something of a luxury skill due to my dislike of lugging wood around, but I won't say no to an instant source of quality bolts.

15 ) Blacksmith / Metal Crafter (pretty good in first three seasons)
Everything these skills do can be done by other skills on the list. Would be more desirable if I had a broader focus on metalworking than arms and armour. As with Clothesmaking, if you get this before the first caravan you can buy bars of metal and process them for a pretty hefty profit.

17 ) Engraver (better when early)
Nice source of room value if you can get one early, but I don't do much engraving and enable the skill on everybody for large-scale smoothing projects. Some dwarves will end up as Engraving mood candidates from that, and if they do mood then I encourage them to use their new skill.

18 ) Gem Cutter (prefer to have late)
A real luxury skill -- I'd rather keep rough gems for moods, and making rough glass means I'm not making glass items I can use. I do like it when I get gem crafts with interesting bits of history on them, and incongruous gem artifacts are pretty neat, but I just don't have much use for gem cutters.

19 ) Stonecrafter / Gem Setter
I have no use for either of these skills, and am unwilling to divert resources to them even if there's a skilled dwarf.

[Putnam]

You have no use for stone crafters? What about rock pots D:

[Sutremaine]

I buy barrels from the caravans, either empty (early on) or with booze inside them.

Solid food is rarely stored in a container. I've experimented with storing meat in containers due to the number of items that get generated on a single tile, but for that the difference in storage capacity between barrels and pots doesn't matter because it gets cooked off and put into a QSP almost immediately. Sometimes I barrel tallow instead of setting up a QSP, and while it can sit around for a while it doesn't take up much room even in barrels.

Long story short, I don't use containers enough for storage capacity to be relevant.

[Larix]

Ordering lots of milk for the cheesemaker also secures a decent supply of barrels. I usually order a load of pots as well, so i can sell food to the elves, too. But that only really needs one or two stonecrafters (who would be good enough for the purpose without mooding), and by the time the first dozen children grow up, i usually have somewhere between five and ten dwarfs who mooded in that skill. It's pretty far down on my personal list.

Spoiler: my preference list (click to show/hide)

1. Mechanic. Depends very much on play style and purpose of a fort, but i usually enjoy messing around with mechanics, and the skill bonus to work speed makes a huge difference. A legendary can finish the link work at the building in a matter of a dozen steps or so, while low-skill dwarfs can fumble around for several days.
2. Weaponsmith. No big surprise; quality is very important for all weapons and training can take quite a while.
3. Blacksmith. High-quality metal furniture? Yes, please! With the high material costs of furniture, high skills are very valuable.
4. Armoursmith. Easier to train than the alternatives and i think quality's not quite as important as for weapons.
5. Clothier,
6. Leatherworker. Those two are important for keeping the dwarfs clothed and contribute to trade value in a major way.
7. Mason. High-quality rock furniture for everybody, not bad.
8. Carpenter. Not so useful on maps with little wood, but lightweight shields, wheelbarrows, bins, buckets, cages etc. make a legendary carpenter a good thing to have. And a wooden piece of furniture makes for very handy building destroyer bait.
9. Miner. Easier to train than a mason, but digging speed's a nice benefit and at least you get a nice piece of furniture out of the mood.
10. Glassmaker. When sand and fuel/lava are available, a good cheap source for spammable trap components and magmaproof furniture.
11. Weaver. Work speed's more important than quality here, but it's a guaranteed artefact clothing item (or bag or rope), and at least it's not some shitty craft item.
12. Bowyer. Useful for arming the civvy militia, but of course the materials are dirt cheap, so training on the job isn't too hard. Definitely a welcome mood nonetheless.
13. Gem cutter. A fort doesn't really need more than one of these, but the increased work speed is welcome.
14. Gem setter. Still no need for more than one actually and training's easy enough with rock cabochons.
15. Metal crafter. Best among the pure crafting types - metals give the best value per material for trade goods and have some attractive extra options. Fairly easy to train normally, though.
16. Engraver. Not bad really, and a fort can use a bunch. However, they're easy enough to train on the job and the mood's guaranteed to be a garbage stone craft.
17. Tanner. Fairly pointless - tanning goes quickly enough anyway. The only saving grace is that it doesn't produce a stupid junk craft.
18. Bone crafter. Bone crafters are actually useful, to dispose of butchery refuse in a profitable way. They're ridiculously easy to train up by hand and i regularly get more than i ever need from child moods, so i'm thoroughly underwhelmed by these. Sometimes you get lucky and get an artefact that's not useless junk - everything from weapons to beds is possible, but more often than not it'll still be a pointless ring or amulet.
19. Stone crafter. Yes, good for making stone pots, but who cares about the quality of those? The artefact's guaranteed useless and it's one of the aggravating kiddie moods.
20. Wood crafter. Why does this even exist? Outside of challenge games, the only possible purpose of this profession is making wooden bolts, and even that is used in a minority of forts.

[itg]

Here's my list, heavily influenced by personal style.

1) Weaponsmith. Of course.

2) Armorsmith. Same.

3) Engraver. I engrave everything, and training up engravers is a pain, since I don't want any low-quality engravings. Too bad the artifact itself is going to be useless.

4) Bone Carver. The legendary bone carver is pretty useful for bone bolts, but really I just like bone furniture. I was very pleased when I got a goblin bone coffin for my first militia commander, for instance.

5) Glassmaker. Glassmakers are very versatile, and you can get some unique furniture like green glass beds.

6) Mechanic. I try to avoid using weapon traps these days, but it's great to pair an artifact mechanism with an artifact door/hatch/floodgate, if you need it to be lever-operated for whatever reason. A bit of a niche use, maybe, but you're very glad you've got that artifact mechanism when you need it.

7) Gem Setter. I like encrusting things with gems, but gem setters are a bit of a pain to train. Plus, the chance at some gem furniture is great.

8 ) Blacksmith. They're not easy to train, but they're nice to have for making luxury furniture. Artifact furniture is great for bait, and artifact doors are just OP.

9) Carpenter. Same as blacksmith, but carpenters are easier to train that blacksmiths and the artifact is likely to be less valuable.

10) Mason. Same as carpenter, except masons are easier train.

11) Miner. Even easier to train than a mason, but produces exactly the same stuff.

12) Clothier. Indestructible clothes can be useful, and a legendary clothier generates a lot of valuable trade fodder.

13) Leatherworker. Indestructible clothes/armor are good, but I don't use leatherworkers nearly as much as clothiers.

14) Weaver. Artifact clothing, and there's almost always some weaving to be done in my fort.

15) Bowyer. I'd rather get a metal crossbow from a weaponsmith. Artifact crossbows aren't nearly as attractive as melee weapons, anyway, since it's easier and more effective (in terms of hits per second) to just recruit another marksdwarf.

16) Gem cutter. Aside from the fact they usually produce a useless artifact (especially those crappy "perfect" gems), I normally prefer a low-skill gem cutter, so I get more cut gems for encrusting things, and few crafts to donate to the elves.

17) Metal crafter. Well, you might get an artifact chain, but otherwise you're getting a valuable but useless artifact.

18) Tanner. Some leather clothing is not unwelcome, but a legendary tanner is not especially useful.

19) Wood crafter. Nearly useless skill, but at least the junk crafts are flammable, which can be fun for traps and/or garbage disposal.

20) Stone crafter. Stone pots are nice, but you don't need a legendary stonecrafter for them. Junk artifact.

[Larix]

Here's my list, heavily influenced by personal style.

3) Engraver. I engrave everything, and training up engravers is a pain, since I don't want any low-quality engravings. Too bad the artifact itself is going to be useless.

You can overwrite floor engravings by carving track, which can then be smoothed away and engraved again. Rather clunky and roundabout, but each step gives additional engraving skill, so it's a valid training scheme.