The Importance Of Druidic Carving
Rune carving is one of those things which is not emphasized enough in Alter. It can be the difference between a decent equipment set, and an exceptional equipment set. Luckily you just need to know someone who's a level 39 druid, and the patience and dedication to running equipment.
A Quick Summary Of Rune Carving
Carving refers to the different druid skills which add runes to equipment. These runes add stats to the particular piece. This could be sewing runes on cloth, inlaying runes with metal at a forge, burning runes on bone and leather, or etching them into stone. It is all referred to as just carving by most players in game.
Each item can hold a maximum of six stats on it. These stats can be added to, but you cannot go over six. If an item already has six stats before being carved, then the runes carved will only add to the six already there. If there are less than six then more effects can be added with the carves.
Runes are random, and because of this it usually takes quite a few items to get one with the specific stats you want. There is no way to ensure you get one rune over another, but you can ensure you get the most possible runes on an item by only having a level 39 druid carve your equipment.
Who Should Do The Carving
A mistake many people make is having a lower level druid carve equipment. Though sometimes it seems better to just get stuff carved quick, this isn't the case, especially with harder to get equipment. Your carver should be max level, meaning 39 druid, and should also have every carving skill maxed at 100% knowledge. If a druid is high level with skills at max they can carve more runes onto an item than a druid at a lower level. In theory a higher level druid should be able to finish what a lower level druid did, but this is not a good idea. If there isn't much room for runes left on the item, you want someone maxed out to do the carving. This ensures you are going to get the most out of the few runes you can have carved. I'm not going to go into composite here, but as you progress in the game this will be more clear, and you'll understand why more fully. When starting out, this is something you should keep in mind.
Disclaimer: After saying all of the above, it is probably not as important with lower level equipment. It is better to have a low level druid carve your stuff compared to no one carving your stuff. The above is just if you want the best results possible, and assuming you are friends with a high level druid who can do your carvings. If you are in Snoodashiff we all make Ophis carve our stuff, but not everyone has access to a high level druid.
Running Equipment For Carving
This is the second place most people mess up. I have seen quite a few people get one of an item, get it carved and call it good. This is barely better than not carving at all. Because runes are completely random, it is highly likely you won't get anything useful on the first try. The only way to ensure you get carves with the stats you want is through quantity.
Example time. I use spider runes on my warrior character. They have warrior skill by 1, damage roll by 4, but negative one castability, charisma, and thief skill. I wanted spider runes with warrior skill by 1, damage roll by 5, and no negative charisma. This meant I needed a damage roll carve and a charisma carve on two of them, one for each wrist. To get this I had to run spider runes every 30 minutes on and off (when I remembered) for multiple days. Eventually I got the carves though, and after some disenchants I have two warrior wrists with skill, and DR 5. These are stupidly good pieces of equipment for a level 31 warrior.
This is why it is important to run equipment for carving. The above example was a pretty difficult one to run, but the basic idea stays the same for all equipment. Get an idea of what you want from a piece of equipment, then run multiples to be carved, then Keep doing this until you have the result you want. This is how you get the best equipment set possible. Doing this means you can get equipment that is way overpowered for your level, and that means an easier time playing the game. Even if you don't know exactly what you want, still get multiples and have them carved. You might just get lucky and get a +2dr or a +1.5 mana regen carve. I've had both happen for me, and it made my equipment more valuable than stuff 10 levels higher.
Conclusion
It is quite simple when boiled down. Find a high level druid to do your carving, and run multiple of the same item for them to carve. Saying this just doesn't seem to drive it home though, so hopefully the explanations above will do it. Run run run, then carve carve carve, if you do this you'll have an equipment set that is leaps and bounds beyond what you could normally have at your level.