Time to quit ?

[MasterKrym]

Considering quitting EQ.

One of my main complaints is the trivialisation of tradeskills. The random rewarding to certain classes and races while others get nothing is a major factor. I have spent 3 years getting my skills up to find that none of them are actually worth anything.

Every expansion makes our skills more trivial. That is more skill up combinations for effectively worthless items.

This is not a rant. I am actually hoping someone can tell me what I can actually use my skills for in the high level game ? Yes there is the odd high end quest and the planar combinations to do for my guild but other than these (which have easy work arounds) I see no reason for continuing in EQ.

Looking for something fun to do but I think I am past the sit for 3 weeks endlessly clicking stage. I think I must be a slow learner because it took me 3 years to realise that tradeskills are not the least bit fun.

I am just another burnt out tradeskiller? There must be a purpose for our skills - anybody ??

[Zsuzsana Dracul]

Well

I don't know how many flags you have but if you are planar flagged you could try the Aid Grimel Quest.

[Ortrillian]

Ooo ooo look I'm famous!

Well, I doubt tradeskilling will get any better with the LDoN expantion. If anyone can get the stats they want on any item then why bother with player made stuff? Yah yah I know it's not every stat that can be added to every item/slot but still. Why bother buying a tailor made robe when you can just make the one you have better in some way. Now, if it was restricted to having some level of skill, making the required modification component player made or not making the item no drop then perhaps we might survive.

This go 'round the people that can multiplay 4+ characters will be farming all the tradeskill stuff and tradeskillers that can't will be paying out the nose for components.

He isn't in an elemental flagged guild so he can't do the Aid Grimel quest...YET. Dunno which guild you're in but if it's Disco or Indig they will be there soon IMO. Plus, if he is burnt out now the AG quest might kill him. I know it almost killed me.

The reasons I tradeskill are: to make plat to buy the things my other characters/friends need or want, make things for those people & because exping is very boring. I also get a sense of accomplishment when I get to 250 in something, then I'm sad because I won't see those skill up messages anymore 8(.

If you only get any pleasure from doing tradeskills and now aren't then why play at all? Even if it's just TS burn out, if you don't like doing the pvp, raids, xp then take a break until you can find something you like again.


Good luck.

[kiztent]

Tradeskills are a supplement to the usual grind of cash farming and raiding.

That is, if you can raid for great gear, you can also find some tradeskill combines along the way to make some gear that's decent but not quite a good as dropped.

If you invest the time to click for weeks on end, you can make the stuff, other people can't. Of course, since they actually made worthwhile items possible with tradeskilling, pretty much everyone has or knows a 250 whatever you happen need, so it's not really a competetive advantage to tradeskill.

Personally I have no interest in tradeskilling any more, but I still collect the items out of habit and do the odd skill-up, though I've maxed most of the skills I really have any desire to take further.

[Verdandi]

As for tradeskills being rendered useless by expansions, that's simply the way the game goes. Each expansion has bigger and better items than were previously available, as inticement to people to buy it. Dropped and quested gear from older eras becomes obsolete, too. What we need to do is keep after them for new tradeskill items with each expansion so that our skills continue to stay useful and profitable.

But you're right about the class/race imbalances; it's long past time for that stuff to get fixed.

[Tinile]

EQ is a game. If it's no longer fun, then don't play. I am a strong believer that EQ vacations are necessary.

[Chenier]

Retirement from EQ is good! We have a back porch to sit on and drink lemonade and rub our wrists, speaking of the old days...

"pfft, back in my day I didn't have SoW! I had to walk from Kelethin to Feerot to kill spiderlings!"

you get the idea....take a break, at least, see how it feels. Or just come back and hang around the message boards like me. =)

[Lilosh]

Originally posted by kiztent
Tradeskills are a supplement to the usual grind of cash farming and raiding.

That is, if you can raid for great gear, you can also find some tradeskill combines along the way to make some gear that's decent but not quite a good as dropped.

If you invest the time to click for weeks on end, you can make the stuff, other people can't. Of course, since they actually made worthwhile items possible with tradeskilling, pretty much everyone has or knows a 250 whatever you happen need, so it's not really a competetive advantage to tradeskill.

Personally I have no interest in tradeskilling any more, but I still collect the items out of habit and do the odd skill-up, though I've maxed most of the skills I really have any desire to take further.

More and more recently, I find myself agreeing with Kiztent. I must be losing my touch. *smirk*

I haven't tradeskilled in some time... I hit 250 Baking around Christmas, Worked up to 188ish in Tailoring during the month after that, and It's been slowly dwindling down.

I recently did the stretch from 140-188 in smithing, using the new Karana Arrowheads.

I've gotten (almost) to the 1450 mark, and I don't see myself going past that. I may pick up the needle again one day, but I'm not sure.

But, like Kiztent said, I still collect the items out of habit, and still combine every now and then. Acrylia Cloaks/Tunics for Guildmates, Hobgoblin Suprise for friends.

Heck, with some new recipes combing out, I may even hit 200 in smithing and tailoring before long. But I just don't have much of the drive anymore.

But I'll tell you one thing. Even after you stop combining, ther's still a profit to be made in trade-skills. Listen really closely, and I'll whisper it.

Sell tradeskill components in the bazaar.


Regards,
-Noishpa Taltos

[Reflan]

How could you not know the result you would get doing tradeskills before you got there? The recipes are all laid out. The /bazaar feature will show you the prices for tradeskilled items, or if there is a gap in the marketplace you can profitably fill. Market channels are on every server for you to ask people about prices and desirability of goods. You can ask your friends what they would buy, or any and every stranger you bump into.

There is no mystery here.

If you just blindly charged in and it took you three years to figure out that you might not like the result, it sounds obsessive-compulsive to me. There's no reason to take up a lengthy project at all if you don't have a fair idea of what the results would be. Or to not modify your devotion to any plan once it starts becoming apparent the pay-off might not be there.

I do agree that Sony badly messed up tradeskills. What with POTC and Aid Gimel and all the lootable tradeskill mods which give double or triple what a geerlok does, a regular ole tradeskiller who does it just because he is into it is going to be overwhelmed by the staggering number of people who have the same skills he does, some of whom haven't put really a whole lot of effort into it at all(15% mods come to mind here).

As a 250 smith not in the elemental planes, what I can make is pretty worthless. People in those planes can comparatively easily loot or get materials to make better than anything I can make for their mains, and the flood of ornate into the maket means they can twink any toon they have who isn't elemental flagged with ornate armor far better than anything I can make. Considering the high failure rate and therefore necessarily high cost of cultural smithing, plus the very low demand for it now, 250 smithing is pointless for most people. And that was supposed to be one of the VERY rewarding skills. But frankly, I can't wait to sell off my alt's cultural and finish up his ornate suit.

And now that the market is so miserable for tailoring, my incentive to take that up has plunged dramatically, too.

So Sony can always mess things up, but there's rarely much of a suprise to it.

If you play the game hoping that tradeskills will always be well-balanced and profitable and sensibly integrated into the game, boy did you pick the wrong game. Once in a while Sony gets it and seems to give a darn, but trades are truly a very minor emphasis in the game. I honestly don't think they put much care into them, or 250 in tradeskills would always be worthwhile to a significant portion of players if they bothered to get to that level -- either so they could make money, or, say, wear or use something from the skill that they would like. As it is now, I don't use my 250 smithing/pottery/baking 241 brewing 200 JC at all, and don't miss it either. There's really no point in it.

But luckily, I didn't get into the game to tradeskill. I wouldn't have kept the game for more than a week if I had. There are other fun things out there. You just can't demand that you will be satisfied one way and one way only, or you're screwing yourself badly, just begging to be unhappy.

And I don't see how any even remotely normal person can play EQ without plenty of vacations. EVERYthing sucks if you do it too much, without exception. Well, everything voluntary, I guess. Breathing is a keeper.

[Wandazula]

If anything I think the potc/shawl/aid gimmel quests did little to help tradeskillers. I mean sure potc meant you could sell the components to people who didn't want to do it themselves, but the other two just made everybody and their mother have skill in all tradeskills.


As long as we're ranting about this... I'd like to add that I am upset about there being nothing of any real interest for wood elves to do culturally. I know, I know I could play another race or tradeskill on another race, but I don't want to! I like being a wood elf. And I know this isn't news, but as I've come back to EQ after a long break and back to tradeskills after an even longer break, it's just another reminder of why I took a break to begin with!

I wish they would update old expansions stuff for tradeskills or rather just make some gear that is tradeskilled be THE thing you'd wear over a drop or something. oh... and when they added dyes... well that stopped one big way to sell to people. new looks!



EDIT: See? I've been gone so long my sig is so out of date!
RIP Vae