4 years and whoops..... (RANT)

[aliciarose]

After 4 years of EQ'ing, I am at the end of my rope. I've been in a guild since day one but while I reached 68 and gotten many keys my one thing I could fall back on was tradeskilling. I loved it. I'd spend my morning with my coffee happily clicking away to reach my tradeskill goals (when I wasn't running around Norrath vendor diving). I didn't play for levels, killing new dragons or the like but for the people aspect of the game and my tradeskilling. And then came the latest expansion. I am just disgusted. They managed to take something and turn it so far around that it is nearly impossible to get 300, (PFFT 270 even) if you are not rich, don't spend 46 of 48 hours of your days farming, or have a guild who will mass collect for you. I've seen Luclin born. Bought LoY when all I wanted was the extra bank space. Got DoN when I didn't want to spend my hours repeating the same old crap for exp but I was told I hadda have it. Did the race for 60, then 65, then 70. Hunted down runes and parchments to get spells. I wasn't impressed with any of it but I had my friends and my tradeskills to keep me happy.... till the last few months. I have had enough of the "power gamers" collecting TS items and raising the prices so much no one can raise a skill on it, you have to have max skill just to hope for a resulting item, to sell for half of what a part of it cost in bazaar. It just plain disgusts me and as a result I haven't logged on to EQ in 2 months. I have 2 accounts, 68 wiz and 69 chanter dwindling away to nothing. It just irks me to no end that they will dumb-down the game for new members, make it perfect for uber guild to get new content but not smaller guilds, come out with an awesome expansion for hunting and then take things that many of us who played for years enjoy and ruin it. I don't think I will be renewing either of my toons when they are up in July and September. I will miss my morning coffee Tradeskill expeditions but I won't miss paying 20K for a rotten crushed diamond dust to TRY and get a skill up because it's just about the only route available.

[Eggborn]

Make some ice cream. Might make you feel better. I saw almonds on sale in Shar Vahl and was tempted as I was getting some water for metal rings the other day.

The next expansion will come out, and maybe they will be bored with collecting all the stuff you need while you group with them even, and trying to sell it back to you for 5 times the price it is worth for weeks after the group broke up.

I hear there will be some changes. I found that I can raise my smithing by killing the aligators in PoN. I can do that. I kill the things on the other side just to hear them make noises and make lots of poppers, but that's just me.

Maybe with the next things will change. Don't give up hope yet, or.. get EQ2. I hear it is better on tradeskills. I have a friend who loves it. He showed me his appartment. In December they had some candle thing, and his place is filled with candles and some pets. Kind of fun. Might be a change for the better.

I do a combo of raiding pretty hard the last 6 months and blacksmithing. I am frustrated too, but always had been with bigger items. It hits me hard when even good friends want to roll against you for an item you need cause they want to try and sell it to buy spells. In the past, I just got it, no questions asked.

[Angelsyn]

Oh come on... it's not nearly that bad.

There are plenty of ways to skill up still. If you're level 68, you can solo in CT for Tae Ew Bloods (for smithing). There are so many Baking & Brewing recipies out there it's just sick. LoY Robes (for those races that have them) are great for skill-ups.

Yeah, tailoring is a bit "gapped" right now for some (Dwarven Tailors are left out in the cold, for example)... but anyone who says you have to be in a raiding guild to get high skill in tradeskills... well, they just aren't looking very hard.

[aliciarose]

Oh it's gapped all right, lol. LoY robes are a way for a HiE if you want to spend 5K+ for words of virtue or .....like I said farm for hours upon hours. My tailoring is at 256 atm and stalled there. You could also farm endlessly in Nobles or Bloodfields or WoS trying to get hides and worse, bloods to drop. No thanks been there done that too. I've got loads of silks but have farmed for crushed diamond dust to no avail.
Farming for a week to get enough items for 2-5 combines is the pits. Period. Maybe when winter comes round again I'll want to waste my money and life doing it again but for now, eh, I've had enough.

[Kirstin Thornhill]

I don't raid more than two or three times a year.

I don't two box.

I don't buy plat to dump into tradeskills.

My guild doesn't farm for me.

My play time is so random that I rarely get to group with the same people in my guild more than once in a month. (It took me 20 months to go through level 55, and I played close to every day.)

I have been playing for over 5 years on my main, and only got to level 66. I have no alts that are able to visit the planes. I have watched countless others in my guild rocket past me in levels, gear, and power.

I acknowledged a long time ago that tradeskills would not make me rich.

I ackowledged that by the time I reach the top of the tradeskill ladder, there will be several hundred other people already there, driving down the prices on anything I can make.

I made it to 300 Tailoring, Baking, and Brewing. And I am going to try to make it to 300 with the rest of my skills also. It might take another 5 or 6 expansions, but I will do it.

[Itek]

If the game isn't fun, certainly don't continue to beat your head against a wall on it.

But I think you might be pushing yourself too hard. Perhaps 2100 isn't going to happen for you for 6 months or a year. (It won't happen for me, ever, but that's a different kettle of fish.) There are other things to do.

I hate raiding so I can see where you might not want that. And exp grinding can get old. But you can save up the AA to buy the mastery/salvage and bank 30 points for later. Being level 70 certainly can't HURT your tradeskilling. And you can always stock up some things on mule/alts bank space. I doubt veggies/tea leaves/morning dew/blue diamonds are going to go out of style in tradeskills anytime soon.

Or... in the "best revenge" category... give the TS bug to someone else in the guild and help them "hit the wall" so you will have someone to share the pain with. Hehehe!

[Rissenn]

If you are 300 tailor, you can easily do combines from Murkglider and Feran blood+ skinns/Hides to make robes, leggings etc and sell in bazaar. That will draw in a fair amount of cash for you.

[Angelsyn]

If you are 300 tailor, you can easily do combines from Murkglider and Feran blood+ skinns/Hides to make robes, leggings etc and sell in bazaar. That will draw in a fair amount of cash for you.

Actually, he mentioned that he was only 252 Tailor and that farming Feran/Murkglider bloods/hides was very difficult.

Of course, at 250+ skill your success rate should be very high with those combines... and at least that market isn't super-saturated, like the Magnetic Armour market is.


P.S. As a High Elf, you could always try farming Storm Volaas Hair... *duck*

[Maevenniia]

P.S. As a High Elf, you could always try farming Storm Volaas Hair... *duck*

/spank Angelsyn

*grumbles* Storm Volass hair... darn bald giants...

[Angelsyn]

Sorry, had to mention it...

A friend of mine (Aleksandros) was complaining to me the other day about those giants.

[Oona Wynterbreeze]

*grumbles* Storm Volass hair... darn bald giants...

Too much wind shear at those high altitudes??

[Aleksandros]

Wind shears? That's IT! I'll tinker a couple pair of wind shears, and equip Jabober with 'em. I'll have those blue-skinned beasties looking like fresh Marine recruits when the barber's had a rough morning - MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...


/em wanders off gibbering about tools and bankspace...

[Nefertiti Nazguul]

Oh come on... it's not nearly that bad.

Yes it is. 5k to 10 k on one word is too much. Especially when you can find words on the npc vendors for around 10 pp. You just cannot find them in bulk on npc vendors. I am just glad the only other tradeskills I have started to raise was cooking. I have also done a little fishing. It would boggle the mind for me to spend tons of pp for one combine.

[Aryse Andenter]

Yes it is. 5k to 10 k on one word is too much. Especially when you can find words on the npc vendors for around 10 pp. You just cannot find them in bulk on npc vendors. I am just glad the only other tradeskills I have started to raise was cooking. I have also done a little fishing. It would boggle the mind for me to spend tons of pp for one combine.

Words that are 5-10k in baz you can rarely find on npc vendors (that's why they are so expensive). I'm a pretty dedicated vendor farmer and I don't tend to find more than one a month of the rare words. Somehow taking a year to build up a stack of rare words I would define as a heck of a lot less than 'not finding in bulk on npc vendors'.

[Nefertiti Nazguul]

Words that are 5-10k in baz you can rarely find on npc vendors (that's why they are so expensive).

Rare or not. On vendors or not. 5k-10k for one word is still too much. Some of the spells they make are not that special. I bought the spell before actually researching it just to see what was so uber about it. Not special. So the price is not worth it. I would prob be able to sell other tradeskill items for cheaper that what I normally do if the words i get now where cheaper. I sell other tradskill items so that I can have the PP to buy words to raise skill. I get nauseas when I see the outrageous prices for words. I sell the words I no longer skill up on for far less than I probally got them for. 10 pp is my max price on the words i sell. Be nice to see more sensible prices on items. Instead of the greedy pricing that I have seen so far.