As most will agree, crafting in WAR is one of the least interesting parts of the game. There are only a few reciepts and even fewer of those actually have any use. It is highly repetative in any case, without any real reward for those doing it.
Well, except for getting ingame currency, that is easy to get in any case.

Things I did see in other games so far, that did give some sense to being a crafter were:

• getting xp(for example Guild Wars 2)
• getting additional Abilities or Gear(for example World of Warcraft)

I’m quite sure, that xp will not work in WAR, since the only thing really needed is renown rank. Gear and abilities always have a chance of being imbalanced, but at the other end, they would create some new options in combat.
Wouldn’t it make the game a bit more interesting, if fighting a potion-brewer was different to fighting a talisman maker?

But first things first…
I do see quite a lot of low-ranked players running around without potions or talismans, weakening their realm a bit and certainly lessening their own experience due o a larger imbalance.
I’d vote for a kind of Buff-NPC, that gives out liniments for free but with a minor drawback:
the one using those liniments shares his renown with the creator of the liniments, giving himself only 95% of the total renown and the crafter the other 5%. And obviously, if nobody gives out any liniments, the Buff-NPC won’t be able to buff anything.
Out of obvious reasons, this npc will only apply the buff one time and should be avaible in all warcamps.
Crafters will have the choice of gaining copper instead of renown(i.e. 1 point of renown = 1 copper) when giving the npc their liniments.

What good would this guy do? Well, for one crafters would get something in return for doing the work, making sure their time spend is not a waste of time for them. On the other hand, the realm itself will be stronger by having everyone buffed up with liniments.

Implementing the same thing with talismans would be a bit trickier, for one, they’d need to have a timer of a couple of hours, preventing talisman makers to level without doing any work by just giving out a single talisman to a high-ranked and active player. Second, they need to have some other kind of buff, a stacking one, that accounts for the amount of free slots.
To make things easier, removing the limitation of 1 talisman/type/item could speed things up, without doing any harm. DPS-classes already have two weapons quite often, so it wouldn’t apply to them.

I’d propose 4 to 6 hours as the timer duration, with a share of 2% in their case. Obviously stacking as often, as there are empty slots.

For calculation purposes, my Warrior Priestess got around 25k renown in half an hour a couple of days ago, using a liniment and full set of (actually weak) talismans. Assuming, she would have used the Buff-NPC instead, she would have shared:

5% for the liniment
8*2% for the talismans

So she would get (100-5-16)/100*25000=0.79*25000=19750 Renown instead. Not perfect, but still better then missing out about 244 weaponskill in melee.(that is ~17% armor penetration).
The one crafting the potion would gain 5%, that is 1250, about the amount three or four ressource carriers could bring in, while the talisman crafter(assuming it’s only one) would get 4000 renown for it.

Now obviously many persons will cry about someone getting renown for free, leveling without being around. There is an easy solution for that, put all this renown into a kind of rested renown and the crafters would still need to play, not only let someone else use their stuff.

There are two reasons, why persons will still actually buy stuff instead of using the npc, for one getting only 79% of what you worked for slows you down quite a bit and on the other hand, there is never a guarantee, that the needed stuff is avaible at the npc.
The real question is, would anyone still sell their stuff? Would you?

Concerning the abilities, I’d prefer them to be morals, since those won’t show up in fast fights, where the time to die is already to low. While all 4 collector-jobs would gain a M1, the actuall creating jobs would gain a M2, at least if they have their crafting skill at level*4 at least.

M1s:

• Hunter’s Eye(Butchering)
  your chance to crit(including critically heal) is increased by 10% for the next 10 seconds, while you use your trained eye to find the best spots to apply your power.
• Breaking the weak(Salvaging)
  For the next 10 seconds all your attacks ignore level*10 armor and resists, while you focus on your enemies’ weak points.
• One with Nature(Cultivating)
  You open yourself for the magic filtered by nature, restoring your energy. You gain 20AP per second over the next 10 seconds.
• Greedy Bastard(Scavenging)
  You feel empored by your greed, targeting the one who seems to be the richest with a zelot’s fevor. For the next 10 seconds, all cc applied to you lasts 50% shorter but gives the original immunity.

M2s:

• Master of Gems(Talisman Making)
  For the next 10 seconds, the gems worn by your group empower them, healing everyone for level/4 per gem and second over the duration.
• Master of Poisons(Apothecary)
  For the next ten seconds, attacks made by your group poison the enemy for level damage per second for 4 seconds.

These Morales should not be to strong hopefully and all should have some use, what do you think, are there better options? Are my options way to strong in some cases?

yours
Idrinth