Runes of Magic US / AU

http://www.theromwiki.com/Housekeeper_Guide#Cooking_Items

Keep in mind the food from housekeepers only last 5 minutes, but they are free (aside from the cost of the housekeeper itself). You don't have to spend time or money collecting/buying the materials to cook the items yourself, such as the activate runes, herbs, and wood.

Since you plan on working a skill up to 75, just keep in mind that it can only be 1 of the 6. Personally, I would make it one of the gathering skills, and do the actual cooking/alchemy/whatever on an Alt - you can have a level 1 Alt be level 80 in cooking if you like. That frees up your Main/Hunter to go into the dangerous areas and collect the high level mats.

Quoted from "Marlborz;584381"

i'm thinking about hiring a fourth housekeeper but do not want to spend the 3,200,000 gold for a cooking maid if my alt will eventually be doing the cooking. The alt is also an alchemist and haven decided which profession he will level to 75. Is it worth the gold now and just level my alt to 75 in alchemy or are the items given out by the maid not comparable to what a level 75 cooking profession is?

Getting to level 75 cooking will cost you a lot more than the 3.2m gold for the housekeeper, especially since most of the foods that you can craft until the 60 or 65 foods will be mostly worthless, so no gold income while leveling the crafting to offset the gold/time invested.

highest level foods is still slightly better from cooking than from housekeepers though and sell for decent 1-2m per stack on Govinda, but unless you have lots of gold to spare, because you won't see any income for quite a long time, I wouldn't try to get to 75 cooking just to replace housekeepers.

The hk does more than just free food. The food is not always compareable to higher level foods, ie 60+ stuff. It is mainly that it is free, and stacks to 99, and you are guarenteed to get the highest level your maid can make. The hk also gives an okay amount of storage space for free.

I usually use my food maid twice for food, then twice for potions. Since it is at 100 and 80 for those skills that works out best for me.

Also, your 4th housekeeper should only be 1.6 mil. But even 3.2 mil is not really that much.

edit:
Correction, the foods only stack to 50. I get 35 Housekeeper Special Unimaginable Salad and Housekeeper Special Deluxe Seafood per a click with a hk at 100 cooking and 100 chrisma.

Quoted from "ruisen2000;584386"

o.O
I thought housekeeper food lasts 15 mins?

I only use mine for potions, but the couple of times I grabbed the food just to try it, they were 300 second duration.

Granted you get like 30 of them with high Charisma per click, so you can get like 120 of them from a non-fatigued HK (which would last you like 10 solid hours), but since they don't stack with player crafted foods I usually just buy the good stuff from the AH.

Maybe the higher level HK foods last longer? I doubt that's the case, though.

Quoted from "Southern;584399"

I only use mine for potions, but the couple of times I grabbed the food just to try it, they were 300 second duration.

Maybe the higher level HK foods last longer? I doubt that's the case, though.

Edit: nvm, it is 5 mins, I blame guildie for keeping me up till near midnight.

Different food lasts different durations. Some is 5 min food, some 60 seconds. And it absolutely 100% worth it. I have two cooks actually - one for sandwiches (60 second crit food) and one for salad (5 min patt food).

And, yes, the high end food is better than HK food, but free HK food daily quickly pays for itself in savings over the comparable cooked food.

As far as I know you cannot get damage food from housekeepers, which automatically makes cooking >> housekeeper cooking, not to mention the food from housekeeprs isn't as good as crafted food. I'd go for cooking over a housekeeper.. make it another potion housekeeper, those pots you can't get anywhere else.

Quoted from "Borella;584433"

As far as I know you cannot get damage food from housekeepers, which automatically makes cooking >> housekeeper cooking, not to mention the food from housekeeprs isn't as good as crafted food. I'd go for cooking over a housekeeper.. make it another potion housekeeper, those pots you can't get anywhere else.

Ditto - although you can do both.. Just get a HK with 100 cooking, and you can still work crafting/potions up to 80 if you like.. That's good enough for all the potions except for Godspeed. Then use your other HKs for potions, and if you're missing any, you can use the cooking HK for more potions, or if you get all the potions you need from your first 3 HKs, you can use the cooking one for, well, cooking stuff.

The only potions I absolutely hate living without are Unbridled Enthusiasm & Lucky Target.. Others I *like* to have are Galloping Gale and Clear Thought, but I can live without them if I have to.

Depending on your character type & playstyle, of course, the potions you like may be different (for instance as a Mage, I have NO need for pungent Vileness - but for a tank it's essential)..

Of my 4 HKs, I only have 1 that will eventually reach 100 crafting.. the others are 100 in other things (cooking, magic buffs, and defense buffs).. but I'll eventually work them all up to 80 crafting as well "just in case" I need them.

Most important thing is to make sure you get HKs with 100 Affinity and 100 Charisma. If you have 80s for EITHER of those, pick a different HK.

Oh, and yes, you can get damage food from HKs -

Housekeeper Special salted Fish with Sauce - Increases Physical damage by 3%+48 points.
Housekeeper Special Delicious Swamp Mix - Increases Magical Damage by 8%+128 points.

However, both of those pale in comparison to their cooking counterparts, especially at higher levels.