In response to your second question, some of them have taken me quite a while. However, I had the same apprehension as you. I did not want to buy basil ports (before the patch) and pay an extra 2-3k crowns for my recipe. Instead I just kept running Jelly King. Actually I think it paid off, because there are very few bosses or 'culminating' points in this game yet so finally getting my recipe was a really fun and big deal. On top of that I made SOOooo much money running JK after Basil that I didn't really have problems making the items.

If you get recipes too close together (usually by buying them) you start to get crunched on CE and materials when you go to make them all (leading to typically buying materials on the auction house or CE via $$). I think it's healthier to just keep running for the recipe and keep it spaced out.

Keep in mind you can also run teir 3 for basil. If you can find a good party it's quite fast, and the recipes are 4* and 5* (sometimes) so you can usually sell the 5* ones for a decent profit. The stratum leading up to him usually has no heat or money though :/

Any recipe could potentially take days, even weeks, to find on your own through Basil, because it's randomly selected, and a random amount each time. You might get a Basil with just a handful of Recipes, or maybe a lot of Recipes. You might get one that has what you're looking for, or absolutely nothing you're looking for.

"You're doing it wrong when you hunt 4* recipes in tier 2. I mean, enjoy your eternal wait for the wanted roll."

I thought you had to have 4* gear to get to T3. Sounds circular to me.

Laminarflo