What to do post 199, need advice

[tatanka7th]

I just finished casserole dishes, and was looking at what to do after that. My assumption is that there is very little, if any, player market for the items used to skill up, and I don't want to take a year to GM, so just waiting for them to sell is not an option for me.

I have limited funds (about 8kpp), and can raise a few Kpp a week doing my normal XP routine. So I'm trying to figure out my best course for getting to 243 (good enough with Geerlock).

It looks like Crucibles of escape are the "cheapest" item to make, and that gets me to 236. The choke point here, of course, is the heavy clay. So far I think I can get about a stack a day farming casually, and will probably need about a stack per skill point, so that's 37 stacks, or 37 days, to get that far, which isn' too bad. They don't stack, but would only cost 5-6pp to make, and would just get destroyed before firing anyway.

The Opal Encrusted Steins look like they're about 20pp each to make, but don't stack, and I'm assuming there's no more market left anyway. This would be a quicker, but more expensive, road to 222.

After 236, it looks like Star Ruby Encrusted Steins are the main route people take. 75-80pp per attempt, still don't stack, but is there a market for them? They are for the POTC quest, but I imagine there's not much traffic in that left anymore.

I see the Planar steins go to 216, but require a "tainted planar essence". I have no idea where to look for those. I this something I could get in quantities to be worth the effort? I have not run across any of these yet in my PoP hunting (granted, that's been limited so far).

Anyway, that's what I've gleaned from the boards so far. Are there any recipes I missed here, or is this pretty much the route everyone follows?

Thanks for the help,

Tat

[Tinile]

First, pottery skill ups were slowed down, and I would estimate 40 combines per skill up are closer to reality then 20 per combine. Your luck may vary, of course.

I would suggest doing a variety of things so you don't get bored and burn out. For post 199 pottery you *will* need a enchanter bot. Level 8 is sufficient for clay chanting, higher if you want to make your own mana vials. I did mostly opal steins til 222, but they actually sold decently at the time. Now, on my server, I see them for 10-15pp each, lower then cost. I assume it's slow going to dump these steins. I still have some star ruby steins left over that are cheap and slow to go.

Planar steins are relatively easy to make. The tanaan clay is 10p each and the tainted essence is about 6p on vendors. They are very common drop in PoD/PoN and are easy to find on vendors in PoK and Tranq. There's no enchanting in these steins and if you don't fire them, the cost is basically 16pp each. If you have a lower level char, you can fire them with peridots and do the stealth manual quest for exp over and over.

Crucibles are a very viable option, but require the farming of clay. Firing them is just silly, so it'll cost you about 6p plus the farm time per combine.

Many people make the old imbued idols to get to 250. I did them for most of my 240s. Find someone that can imbue a cheap gem like amber, jade or star rose quartz, and have them imbue a gazillion of them. Make sure you aren't making the golden idols, but the regular ones with the clarify mana vials. This recipe requires mana vials and enchanted clay and imbued gems, which is all a big pain. It should be a lot easier with the new mass imbue spells tho.

Also, if you have a geerlok or trophy, you only need skill of 240 for max effective.

Hope this helps and good luck potting! :)

[tatanka7th]

Yep, got the chanter bot covered (level 51), plus with a manastone and semi-CH, can pretty much enchant stuff as quick as I can click.

I have lousy luck vendor mining, so not sure if I will pursue the planar steins or not.

Thanks again,

Tat

[Obina]

Tinile is spot on.

If you want to sell (or make nice gifts for friends) make Opal Steins and then post 222 Star Ruby Steins mixed with Golden Idol of Tunare.

If you dont plan to sell, then make primarily "old" imbued idols or Ceramic bands, depending on which diety of imbuer you can find. If you know an E Marr Cleric, you are set!. But do mix in some Crucibles for amusement, and when higher, some Faithstones. I say amusement since your 51 enchanter can farm plat in, say, Rathe or even LGuk faster than he/she can farm Heavy Clay in Beholder.

What is the point of pottery if you dont enjoy the journey as well as the destination?

[tatanka7th]

I will look into the old imbued idols, I think I missed them when surveying what I can make.

You'd be surprised at the speed I'm accruing heavy clay. I've discovered a couple helpful tricks in the Gorge, and am bound there now. I spend 10 minutes at the beginning and end of each nights session in the Gorge, and come away with 10-15 heavy clays.

Rathe Mnts., wow, there's a place I haven't been in ages. Is it still camped all to hell? I make (as my druid, my main who is the one skilling up) a couple hundred plat an hour just XP hunting in PoP, I don't think I'd do much better than that in Rathe.

Anyway, thanks again for the advice. I may do the steins or idols for a bit (to the teens or low 20s maybe), and then blow through whatever heavy clay I've amassed by that time, and then finish the push to 240 with whatever is cheap after that.

If the EMarr idol is cheap enough, I may roll an EMarr cleric. I can level them up to 29 faster than finding one and then having them imbue hundreds of gems for me. With the new lowbie XP curve (through level 10), it only takes about 5-6 hours of serious PLing to get a toon to 29 anyway.

Thanks again for all your help,

Tat

[Idara]

That's pretty much what I'm in the process of doing. I got my cleric of E. Marr to 18 in about 3 hours with my 58 druid to plvl. The leveling has slowed WAY down now though. Not really sure where to take her at this point to maximize the leveling. I have her in Marus Seru killing rockhoppers.

[tatanka7th]

Well, the main key to PLing is ZEMs (zone experience modifiers). There are several zones now with really high ZEMs that are great for PLing. For a level 18 (shooting for 29), here's some options (remember, normal ZEMs for outdoor/dungeon are 75/85):

Unrest 130
Upper Guk 150
Solusek's Eye (SolA) 130
Paludal Caverns 160
Najena 130
Warrens 150 - Prolly too high already for these last two
Crushbone 160 -

For a char still in the teens, make sure to keep fighting reds, and once the PLee has done over half the damage, let the druid nuke it dead. As you get into the mid 20s, you have to ease up to yellows maybe for a non-melee PLee, unless you have the cleric nicely twinked with armor, but I'm assuming not.

Tat

[Tinile]

I just PLed a shm to 29 in about 8 hrs played. Went for less crowded zones... did most of that in mistmoore. Nothing like a 29 clearing the castle by herself! lol Of course, I have 3 accts and PLed with 65 druid and 51 enchanter lol ;)

[Pootle]

Ok i cant find the cost of the Rose Quarts for the Idols you are talking about?

Are they cheaper than Amber, which i belive sells at 2pp5gp. For this i am thinking of PLing a CazicThule troll shammie.

I really dont want to PL another Cleric.... already have a Tunare Cleric that i used for Imbue Emerald (i am a tailor too). So i am gonna PL a shaman, and have been looking for the cheapest oldworld Idol to work for.

Now if Erolsi Marr is cheaper, can i do a frog shammie?

Any comments would be very welcome.

[eqNichola]

Star Rose Quartz cost 1.05pp each. According to Lucy, both Imbue Rose Quartz and Mass Imbue Rose Quartz are only available to *clerics* of Erollisi Marr, so not frog shaman.

Amber is the cheapest shaman-imbueable gem, it looks like.

[Pootle]

Anyone else think no Frog Shaman on the imbue spelll is not really fair?

Oh well i think i will stick with my Troll.

[Tinile]

if frog shm cannot imbue their diety that sounds like a bug to report to soe.

[tawnos]

I PL'd up a erollisi marr clr for this purpose. By far the best method if you have a druid (or bard,mage also probably) is to pull a big train, ds your druid, then do one AE with the cleric. The druid usually retains aggro from the mobs once the clr backs away by proximity aggro, and the damage inflicted by the damage shield is not attributed to any source. I did this in paludal and upper/lower guk up to 29 (the clr was already 16 when i started). I almost spent more time upping alteration skill so i could cast the imbue than i did pl'ing the bot up.

[Pootle]

I mailed SOE about this. Hopefully it will be an easy fix that they can sneak in soon.

I will copy any email reply I get about it here.

[Dryanna]

Froggies can only worship Mithaniel Marr, not Erollisi. Hence, no Erollisi Imbue. :(

[Idara]

My Plvling is going somewhat slower. I got her from 1 to 16 in just a few hours, but after that it slowed down. I don't know Guk very well so I've had her in Echo Caverns. I can only really single pull there. I've also saved up all her training points to dump into alteration as soon as she hits 29. But I've decided this is much easier than trying to find a cleric of E. Marr that's willing to spend hours imbuing for me. And, although I already have a dark elf cleric and a Tunare worshiping druid, those gems are far to expensive to spend on skilling up. I'm hoping to have her finished with her pottery in two weeks. Just 20 more points to go!

[tatanka7th]

I looked over my options, and decided against it.

I spent a good deal of time looking over the possible recipes for skillup, evaluating the costs and ease of acquiring the components, and I saw that the EMarr steins cost about 17pp per attempt, and can take you to 250, but 240 is all that's really needed.

I can do ceramic bands or opal steins, for 16-20pp per attempt, and get to 222. I can do White ceramic bands to 231 for 30pp per attempt, and then Crucibles of Escape to 236 for 7pp per attempt (farming the heavy clay).

For the last 4 points, I'll either find a cleric to do imbues for me (and shouldn't need TOO many for just 4 points of skillups), or just blow it off and let PoP combines get me there eventually. I just don't see the cost savings of the EMarr combines being great enough to justify PLing a toon to 29. Even if it only took 6 hours, I can make several kpp just hunting in that time (and get XP), to make up for the extra cost.

Tat

[Kongming]

it cause there is no farming needed with that route.

[tatanka7th]

Well, the only farming needed for my route is for 5 points worth from 231 to 236, and the only item farmed is the heavy clay. I've stockpiled about 5 stacks now, just spending 10 minutes a day farming it (bound in the Gorge).

Here's my results so far:

starting at 199 pottery skill:

Blue ceramic bands, 28 attempts, 3 skillups (to 202)
Black ceramic bands, 60 attempts, 2 skillups (to 204)
Green ceramic bands, 405 attempts, 14 skillups (to 218)
Opal Encrusted steins, 62 attempts, 4 skillups (to 222)
White ceramic bands, 240 attempts, 5 skillups (to 227)

Total cost for this, about 18kpp, after sellback (to merchant) of blue, black, and green CBs (unfired), which all see back for 6-8pp each.

I need to raise a little more cash to finish the white CBs to 231, then I'll start blowing through the heavy clay I've farmed.

Skillup rate was pretty decent (about 1/25) until I hit the White CBs, which are skilling up at about a 1/50 rate.

Tat

Update -
White ceramic bands, 69 attempts, 4 skillups (to 231)
Crucibles of Escape, 108 attempts, 3 skillups (to 234)
Idol of EMarr, 300 attempts, 9 skillups (to 243)

I found a nice cleric of EMarr who imbued 20 stacks for me, only used up 300 so far, and ran out of cash, so I still have 100 left.

Total combines from 199 to 243: 1272 (about 29 attempts/skillup)
Total plat outlay: 27kpp

All combines at 265 WIS

[Sslurp]

If you need a small tip for PLing, i got a 44 ranger with 2 played days.

Use classical PLing method up to 18 (SolA for exemple), then move to SolB. Yes, it's possible at 18 ;) There, with the high char, pull like 3 kobolts with a DS on it (as 65 shaman, I used potion to have a 33 DS) then root kobolts and stick them. Root modify the way agro work. Make at least 1point of damage to each kobolts then move a bit back if you want (easier to target a kobolt if root breaks).

It's around 1 or 2 blue bubble per kill ;)

At 35, it becomes a bit slow, move to Velketor. I use another technic there. Monk Pling. Pull and kill spider up to 3% then FD and finish it with the char to PL (a healer around is necessary). Again, it's about 1 blue per kill. Best spot is Frenzy.

Enjoy