REPOST: How to do Ornate Chain and make a profit!

[Harvyst]

I'm reposting this from the old boards because I feel it's a valuable way for a poor smith to make it through the hellacious 122-155 area in Smithing.

I figured out how to get through the ornate chain bit - and make a profit.

Last night I went from 133 in ornate chain to 155, where gold mail trivials. I made 500 plat in selling off my successes - after the cost of gold and patterns - and made another 700 plat while hunting. Not bad considering I spent 1k on ornate chain 3 months ago doing it the expensive way!

I did it this way...

1) Clear out all your bags. Get as many empty spaces as you can. Then make sure you have at least 1 stack of water, and 1 file.

2) Go to High Hold Keep. I'm kos to the guards there, after doing 3 levels on nobles, and the related factions are freeport militia and corrupt queynos guards. I never go to freeport or Queynos, so I really don't care if I'm kos.

Kill guards. Each guard drops a fs sword. I would kill them until I had 65 fs swords... don't bother killing the captains, they drop "rusty" swords instead of fs. Each guard also drops up to about 8 plat, so I got a nice chunk of change even while hoarding the swords. Strength buffs are a must, as I went to 250 weight very quickly. You can sow inside HHK, and the aggro range of the guards is small. The only things to watch out for are Ran Firespinner and Carson McCabe, and they're out of the way.

I got 65 swords in about an hour, even with 2 other people farming the guards.

3) Take your swords to High Hold Pass (1 zone over). There's a forge there behind a merchant's house. The merchant sells water, and while I was dubious to him, I could use sneak and buy water from him. Plus merchants were only dubious, so they didn't aggro me when I uninvised and smithed.

1 fs sword + water = 1 small brick hq ore + 1 small piece hq ore
3 small pieces hq ore + water = 1 small brick hq ore
3 small brick of hq ore + water = 1 large brick of hq ore
1 large brick of hq ore + water + file = 2 hq rings (that's what you need).

Large bricks of hq ore weigh an insane amount, so it's best to complete the process up to hq rings rather than lug hq ore around. HQ ore doesn't stack, but the rings do.

I needed about 9 stacks of hq rings to get to 155.

4) Bank your rings in HHK. I was kos to the banker (she's not on different faction - she is on guard faction), but I would invis, run behind her, remove invis, use her. Sometimes she would turn around and attack, but I could bank through her attacking, and then run to the zone.

5) Repeat steps 2-4 until you have enough hq rings. 65 swords makes around 2 stacks 6 rings, or 46 rings.

Extra loot made while farming: around 700 plat.

Then I made the ornate armour in Sanctus Seru, because it has chainmail patterns, water, and electrum/gold bars all within close reach. Plus I'm not KOS there

I succeeded far more than I thought I would, and skillups far faster than I remembered.

I ended up with a 500 plat profit, because I did not buy the ore.

I then went and used my 3 stacks of leather padding to make fs armour. I did loose 1200 plat going from 155 to 164 (when I ran out of padding). As far as I can tell, there is no cheap way to gather blocks of mq ore (required for fs armour). The 1200 price tag was on molds and ore - my padding I farmed.

So I came out about even for the evening, and at 164 skill :)

[Windru Peacekeaper]

Congratz Harvyst, quite ingenious. I unfortunately got to 175 smithing the OLD way, making banded. After THAT patch, I got to 177 or 178 doing fine plate, I got a couple of skill ups to 180 making acrylia chain and plate, and up to 182 making the blessed sickle parts. I made 10 attempts at the FP BP (188) but got no skillups. So now for me, It's hunting time, try to get that death buffer in 51...

Keep up the good work friend!

Windru Peacekeaper
51 Druid
Cazic Thule server

[Gailedon]

I imagine you can kill the guards in Paineel or the DE guards in Nektulos for their fine steel as well. Good plan though. Too bad I'm at 175 and can't use this method :?

[Njord_Sifusansoo]

For those who don't want to lose faction with HHK, u can just disarm the guards. Then for those of us with a way to drop aggro (like us monks with fd), u just drop aggro and move onto the next guard.

[kirusgreymist]

what lvl are the hk guards?
and also last time i went to farm fs for cash in nek forest i found the guards up to the bridge all drop rusty now
dont know bout the gate guards to neriak... im not that high
and the hk guards are on what faction? fp, qeynos, or their own? cause ill kill my hk and fp faction(dubius and kos) but id rather keep qeynos faction (one of 3 old world towns i can walk into, cept the cleric guild im barely kos there now) been workin on it) clean
-kirus :twisted:

[ArrakeenNaedShoj]

Having farmed the Paineel Guards for cash for months, I can definately say that they do not drop Finesteel. They drop Bronze longswords and Kite sheilds every time though which nets about 8pp per kill.

Don't know about the DE guards...yet :twisted:

[Androsulach]

Nektulos guards also drop bronze. As a newbie I made plat by looting the corpses of unlooted guard corpses at the bridge. I'd sell the bronze swords and bank the plat.

Gnolls in SK and in Splitpaw drop FS weapons. Unfortnately, there are no convenient forges near Paw, which means lugging them to HH or Qeynos.

[Xorshaik]

Actually, disarm wouldn't be as effective since you could only get one clearing's worth of weaps~ That and you don't get the pp off of the guards that helps it be a little more profitable as discussed.

[Ghratch]

This is awesome thanks so much for the repost

[Harvyst]

what lvl are the hk guards?
and also last time i went to farm fs for cash in nek forest i found the guards up to the bridge all drop rusty now
dont know bout the gate guards to neriak... im not that high
and the hk guards are on what faction? fp, qeynos, or their own? cause ill kill my hk and fp faction(dubius and kos) but id rather keep qeynos faction (one of 3 old world towns i can walk into, cept the cleric guild im barely kos there now) been workin on it) clean

The guards are, I believe high 30's low 40's. I know I have seen 40's farming them for xp.

The guards are on the following faction:

Guards of HHK
Carson McCabe (the guy upstairs)
Corrupt Guards of Queynos
Freeport Militia

You will loose faction with Queynos and Freeport.

I never go there so I don't care :)

[Lilosh]

For us druids/wizards,


Is there any druid ports that are very close to a forge? Im thinks of going to SK or Paw, binding, filling up with Fine Steel Weapons, and porting myself to a forge..


Is this feasable? Maybe PoK would be the easiest one? Any better ideas?


-Lilosh

[Gailedon]

I feel like a moron. :oops: You are quite correct, they do drop bronze. I can only claim temporary insanity caused by work. I am positive however that the kobolds in Solb and Hill Giants in Rathe Mtns drop fine steel. :P

[ArrakeenNaedShoj]

I can't think of A druid port that would get you in same zone as a forge, but I can think of a wizzy port that will for you nukers. Gfay will have you only a short run with enhanced run-speed from a forge.

Now that I think of it, is there a forge in surefall(I didn't see one on the trade supplies page). If so that would be your best bet for it. If not I think GD would be the quickest for it, or Nexus if you don't mind the lag in Bazaar.

[KennyCelican]

There's also the simpler method, that's available to all casters / healers rather than just Porters of whatever stripe - bind yourself at a forge, then do your farming.

[Lilosh]

Kenny ,

That means you only get one round of farming. After you gate, you have no easy way to get back to the hunting ground.

Whereas binding near SK or Paw, then porting myself to ...err... PoK, I guess, then gating back means I can farm FS to my hearts content!


-Lilosh

[KennyCelican]

Well, if you're gonna be farming in SK or Paw, you can bind to a forge, then Port back to NK and run at SoW speeds back to SK / Paw, can you not?

I mean, it does eat up aminute or two, but I still recall playing EQ on dialup, where a bad zone-fairly-hostage incident could tie up that much time.

Not optimal as Port directly to forge / Gate directly to hunt, but not too shabby.

By the way, you could Port up to nexus and run over to ShadowHaven. There is a forge not too far at all from the Nexus / ShadowHaven Port Platform.

[Naeen]

Just port into PoK. Plenty of forges there. :)

[Windru Peacekeaper]

druids can port to Misty and run into Rivervale, Tox and run into Erudin, Steamfont into Akanon, Twilight Sea into Katta, Dawnshroud into Sanctus Seru, Nexus into Shadowhaven, and Butcherblock into Kaladim.

None of those are especially close to a zone, except for Misty - Rivervale.

I have not seen a forge in Surefall, just a merchant selling molds...

Windru Peacekeaper

[Ame]

being a cleric and farmimng acrylia and velium is a nightmare to say the least - thank heavens for faithstones/spiritstones - now i can bind in grimling forest - use faithstone to get back to paineel (my beloved home which until a few patches ago was bugged cause i couldnt get out of the cleric area :() bank or work the materials (banking preferably because paineel isnt the best equiped tradezone in all of Norrath) and then gate back to grimling forrest.

once i finished my farming all i need do is port to paineel and either use the book to PoK or the spires ... so convinient now ;)

[Radasar]

I have to say that if you want to go the fine steel to hq ore route and not trash your good fac, you can go to mistmoore castle, you get neg agents of mistmoore and mayone mistmoore fac, but gain ring of scale, and antonican bard fac, money and loot is ok in mmc, but its fairly dangerous alone, but there are rarely people there
unfortunately I learned about the fine steel to ore conversion to late to use.. I was selling the FS weapons for plat to buy HQ ore.. talk about irony
(pun intended)

[Nhin Impious]

The Tae Ew lizard folk in Feerott drop FS weapons on occasion... and most of them drop a plat or two apiece. They're blue to me at 27, and most of them are fairly easy to single out and solo (especially with Calm, Root, etc.) for a Cleric.

You can go directly from the spot to the PoK book in same zone and straight up to PoK and the forges there. I've been hunting there since 24 (and actually hoping this post gets someone else on Vallon Zek to mosey over... could use a huntin' partner)

Nhin

[sir0die]

i was bound in nexus, i'd take PoK book into ferrot, run due west to Rathe zone line, hunt in rathe till full of weapons (i'd even /ooc wtb FS weapons), when full i'd gate out, back to nexus, then i'd zone into SH and smith my HQ rings in SH. Then i'd go back to POK and buy the gold and patterns and smith the rest in POK, then use book back to ferrot and start all over again.

some times, i'd just convert the weapons to rings, then head staight back to ferrot (VIA PoK book). especially when Rathe had few people in it.

however if you aren't concerned about faction, you could hunt guards in HHK.

advatages
--------------
sword give small block + small piece
2 zones away from Rivervale

disadvantages
------------------
faction issues
HGs in rathe give ya more plat
Rivervale don't sell the nessesary chainmail patterns



when i'd buy FS from folks in rathe, i'd fill my packs about 3/4, earning a crap of plat from MY kills. Then i'd buy however many i needed to fill my packs full. Usually paid 10p per weapon. after all, i got alot more plat now, than before i entered the zone. I'd also offer atm services to those i bought from, afterall, i knew i was gonna gate out, so what the hell, why not, they apreciated it.

[Rendael Brigh]

The next time you are in that place that has the orcs, gnolls, shops, and that fort you can zone into, take a look at the real names of those zones :P

Concerning faction:

Qeynos corrupt guards are all wimps except for Lt Dagarok. He is a semi-common spawn that wanders from his station in the corner near the pool by the monk guild, to near the Priest of Discord. He shares the route with a lesser guard that spawns in the same spot.
He is a sk with a halberd that is basically a gate guard type, BUT no matter your level, he hits like a Protector of Zek (300s).
He has high MR, so as stunning him is futile.
I personally want revenge help from guildmates as he killed me once fast and unexpectedly a while back in late 40s or early 50s.
I was turning in some gnoll pup scalps to the monk trainer Phin while he was standing at the PoD.
I was in trade window when I get HT in 700s I think, then slashed for 300s several times.
I was dead before I could turn around.

All the other Qeynos corrupt guards are green to level 20.

Freeport is no problem. Just use the tunnel to NFP.

For you paladins that still want to do your epic, and you have never done Soulfire which is required, you will need your faction with that banker in that aforementioned "fort".
If you ever want to redo Soulfire to have your own personal 5 charge instant cast CH item, you will need to rework faction, or keep it.

[Kaaba]

The best zone for getting fine steel weapons is Oggok, hands down. I go there with my 63 ranger and I kill all the guards (they are around 33-37 and don't take that long for me to kill maybe 30 seconds, they have like 2k hps maybe), and they are respawning before I finish all the roaming and stationary guards (I do a cycle of around 16 guards or so). I can sneak and buy water at the first vendor in the zone so I can break down the FS, then there is forge inside the zone by the vendor who sells large fine plate molds (this vendor is indifferent to all by the way so anyone can sell and buy from him), I break down the weapons and convert them to rings there. I also make 10 pp or so per guard in gems, coin loot and shields that I sell. I did this the other night for 3 or so hours and left with 60 HQ rings and about 500 pp more than I came there with.

[tomojo]

Originally posted by Kaaba
The best zone for getting fine steel weapons is Oggok, hands down. I go there with my 63 ranger and I kill all the guards (they are around 33-37 and don't take that long for me to kill maybe 30 seconds, they have like 2k hps maybe), and they are respawning before I finish all the roaming and stationary guards (I do a cycle of around 16 guards or so). I can sneak and buy water at the first vendor in the zone so I can break down the FS, then there is forge inside the zone by the vendor who sells large fine plate molds (this vendor is indifferent to all by the way so anyone can sell and buy from him), I break down the weapons and convert them to rings there. I also make 10 pp or so per guard in gems, coin loot and shields that I sell. I did this the other night for 3 or so hours and left with 60 HQ rings and about 500 pp more than I came there with.

It doesn't take a level 63 player to do much the same in SolA.
My level 50 chanter uses his pet to fight and a level 1 DOT to pull. Keeping Berzerker Strength on self and pet, it is easy to make the rounds of the northern mines. Good amounts of FS weaps, as well as small and some large HQ ore. Bonuses include Kindle, Singe, Koblod Predator, etc. Loot everything, and when getting weighed down, head to the vendor with the Tinkerers bag and Travelers boots. Sell everything but the FS and Gems first, then buy the HQ ore he has (don't buy FS weaps from him - too expensive), then buy any gems he has to reduce cash weight since gems will re-sell with little loss. After less than 2 hours and with over 6 bags full of HQ ore and FS weaps and over a bag of gems, I had over 1Kpp cash after sale of gems and enough ore/weaps to make almost 3 stacks of HQ rings.

I could barely move even with the buffs, one Tinkerers bag and a Ralick Pack, but my pet did the fighting, so I didn't have to move much anyway and the dumb little buggers didn't even agro when my pet was chasing a runnaway right past 'em.

I was bound by the banker in PoK so that I could bank enough to be able to move while smithing. And the run from Nektulos thru Lavastorm isn't that bad.

PS. I never fought any gnomes or clockworks.

[Kaaba]

Also guards in Oggok drop fine steel, and theres a forge there as well. I farmed ore there when I was skilling up and it only took a couple nights, every guard from the zone in to the forge drops 1 or 2 fine steel weapons, a shield that sells for a plat or so, up to 6 pp in coin and various gems and ivory.