Tradeskills-1, Poor Low level tradeskiller-0

[Strokker]

Ok, I finally get it. trade skills is not for the poor or low level players it is desinged now adays for the high end players with Plat falling from their pockets. A low level player has no hope of ever getting the drops either because they cannot get to the places or if they can then the weakest mob in the zone uses them in unspeakable fashions. Spell Research is one that has me totally frustrated, Tinkering aint too bad, Smithing is for those who could benifit from Psycological treatments and the list goes on and on. I have tried to find any way possible to sneak around the problem but there is none.

You have to either be UBER in good with an UBER Guild or have UBER plat and no ifs ands or buts about it. Tradeskills you win, I now know I will never get all of my spells or have some better armor or even a chance of ever being taken seriously in my class so I will keep playing in my vacant zones by myself and if I can manage to get a few items to tradeskill on then I as a tradeskill junkie will do the combines and know the never ending pain of either no skill up or failed combine, and then go back to my lonely scrounging and clawing in the dirt for scraps and tid bits...golum...my pressious...golum... .....

[Nimphe Wildwood]

It takes time, energy, passion and a lot of effort. Don't forget that a lot of us started back in the early days of EQ wearing cloth/leather/plate gear with mere coppers, silvers and golds in our pockets.

Personally, I have EQTC recipe notes that are older than most players around these days. I didn't start out with massive amounts of plat, didn't belong to an elite guild and certainly wasn't a high lvl.

From the time I started TS'ing in 1999, until I hit 2100 on 12/26/2005 - it has taken me almost 6 years to accomplish my goal. (6 real life years...please tell me I'm not insane! haha) I didn't give up, I kept plugging along, some days were spent getting xp, other days it was farming, and then long, long, long stretches of not trade skilling because of lack of funds.

By the time year 5 comes around for you, come talk to me. Until then, I really know how you feel. It's not about being in the Uber guild with Uber plat...it's about the commitment. Do you want it badly enough to roll with the good times as well as the bad...

Good luck Strokker.

[Ursawraith]

Heh Tradeskills have been a labor of Love for me as well. The only advise I can give is work on tradeskills because you like to make items not because you want to get rich, because tradeskills will only make you mad then :P

[Maevenniia]

without knowing your character's level and current skill levels, I can't propose any alternate options for you, unfortunately. But there are always options...yes, some make take plat...

If you are high level enough to kill the elite sand giants in the Ro deserts, you can farm plat and a few sellables to fund your tradeskill addiction while also maxing Freeport militia and pally factions (you get a small amt of plat and exp from that quest, too).

And yes, of course, the higher your character gets, the easier it is to farm plat. But levelling is not horribly difficult nowadays, so maybe if you levwl the character up a bit it will may your tradeskilling go easier too. I know that once Mae levelled over 50, things got a bit easier, in terms of farming plat and tradeskill components (for use or sale.)

Hang in there, it'll get better

[Itek]

It's a sad fact that EQ is a "level based" rather than "skill based" system.

You need levels to increase skills (i.e. AA to have more than one skill over 200)

You need levels to kill mobs which either drop items needed for more difficult combines or plat/items to trade for such.

If you really could become a 300 smith sharpening rusty weapons ... and a 300 tailor making raw silk armor... (etc etc etc) ...

You wouldn't want it. Sense of accomplishment is directly tied to sense of difficulty.

I long ago realized I was never going to be "top" in anything on my server, let alone server-wide. I nudged up against being in the top 150 clerics on my server before the fall semester started up... /sigh

Hopefully doing tradeskills is fun, if it isn't hold up for a while. There's a ton of other things to do in EQ and doing some of them while on a hiatus from tradeskilling might improve your opportunites to return to tradeskilling.

Don't let the !@$!# get yah down!!

[Rinikku]

All I can say is save your money. That's what I did. Every little thing that dropped from a mob was sold to a vendor (or person depending on what it was). I was tempted to buy new gear, etc. but I made my choices to not spend all my money at once.

Once I had money saved up, I would "invest" some of it into the tradeskill of my choice (alchemy ). Now a lot of the stuff that is alchemy made can be sold to other players, but then you need to have a bazaar character able to sit in the bazaar a couple hours a night (thank you cable internet) in order to sell the potions to other players to get more money to fund your tradeskill adventures.

As far as needing an uber guild, that's laughable. I have never been an uber guild and probably never will be. But I would say that having good friends never hurts. I asked everyone I knew to save tradeskill items that I was currently using (i.e. deep water ink and nodding blue lilys comes to mind). Every little bit helps.

I started alchemy, I think, in 2002 and I did not get it to 300 until this summer. 3 years for one tradeskill... some people think I nuts, but I had a lot of fun and it's nice being able to create things that make my alts happy (i.e. sow and ds potions). Just stick with it if you enjoy it and you will succeed in time.

[Wyvernwill]

Though I don't know exactly where you fall in terms of your skill level, when I started out, it was through farming various little things and doing subcombines and selling those off to cut some profit.

I grew to find that Research once you get it rolling, becomes very self sufficient. Some other tradeskills aren't as good at that. One easy way to start out would be with Baking/Brewing especially. Both are rather cheap to skill gain with, plus Misty Thicket Picnics and Kaladim Constitutionals both sell decently in the bazaar for little cost to make. It's an easy way to start making some money.

Things like Celestial Essences are a chore and a half for most people to make, and a lot of people take to buying them in the bazaar. Subcombines, as long as they aren't class/race specific, generally pull in a decent amount of plat as well.

Ultimately... Tradeskills aren't for the rich. Tradeskills may require platinum to keep them going, but the simple fact is that just because you have a lot of plat doesn't mean that they are going to skill up themselves. Not everyone has the will to put the effort into that.

[Sharrien]

I made a lot of my plat making ethereal sheets/rings/swatches, among other things. At the time they sold well and they required nothing from "uber" zones, even back then. If you find your chosen tradeskill is too expensive, try farming or producing cheap things that people will want to buy in large, convenient quantities.

crystallized sulfur
saltpeter
any of the research oils/acids cheaper than the vender
acrylia
velium
leather padding
lacquered star rubies
magic clay
smithed AAAA parts
dropped AAAA parts
MCS components
stat food and drink

Any one of those will yield good profits, some very large profits. None of it requires raid gear to get, all the drops but the AAAA parts or saltpeter could be farmed by a lvl 30 toon. That's just a quick list I came up with in 30 seconds. Once you make enough on the small stuff you can afford to try combines on the bigger ticket items. If you are looking to turn 10k profits on each combine when just starting out, forget it. Work your way up.

[Zorus]

I feel the exact opposite about tradeskills, I believe I have made most of the plat I have now because I did do tradeskills. When I started tradeskills I had very little plat to play with, so I spent alot of time researching EQTraders finding the least expensive or farmable components for skillups. I spent alot of time farming drops, I still dont believe in buying tradeskill components that I can easily farm myself. I have sold some of my creations, mainly Artisan seals and leather padding being the largest numbers sold, but i have a wide variety of other tradeskilled items in small numbers. The main thing that tradeskills did was make me aware of dropped items that are worth alot to tradeskillers, maybe not necessarily me, but others that needed. Best example, finding pyrilian flame, gelidran ice, slugworms ect on merchants; the person that sold them had no idea what they were worth, but because I did tradeskills I knew. . .and quickly bought them and sold on my trader later.

You did not state your level, but I would recommend not worrying too much about skilling up tradeskills until maybe mid 40's, then alot of the farming becomes easier and there is a wider selection of places to farm. As you are leveling, do what tradeskilling you can as you get the components. This is all in my opinion though, everyone does it different.

~Zorus

[Strokker]

A couple of you have wondered about my level I am a gnome level 50 mage and am mostly frustrated by Spell research, it is driving me mad I have tried to think of possible subcombines for the drops I can get and I am at a loss all these sub combines are spinning in my head and it even keeps me awake at night...grrr...I want to give up n tradeskills alltogether, yet I want to do them sooo badly... Someone please get this tradeskill monkey off my back before I go someplace life Frostcrypt and commit suicide by binding myself there in a perpetual death/bind loop< I know sony has a way out of that now but you get my drift...muahahaha> I am going mad...MAd do you hear me??!!??? MAD as a hatter!!!

[amocasus]

I wouldn't suggest starting Research as your first forray into tradeskills. It is the most realistic of the tradeskills IMO, but you do need a ton of plat just to afford the components to make parchment solutions. If you want to make old world combines then say goodbye to ALL of your bank space. I saved research for last since I knew that my bankspace would be taken.

Try a different tradeskill for now. If you get hooked on it, then at least you'll have a better understanding of what is required.

Good luck.

[Maevenniia]

ok level 50 enchanter - check.

Still need to know:

What's your current Spell Research skill Strokker?


BTW, have you seen our lovely padded room? we even have a nice long-sleeved robe for you to wear...well, more of a jacket really....nice and soft, though.....

[Luvimt]

Tradeskilling can be so frustrating at times, my advice is to take a break from it when you get really annoyed, do something else - hit a zone you havent hunted in before, try a different tradeskill, complete a quest/task.

As for money for parchments; try levelling in zones that people want drops from. Check out the buyers on your server and hunt for stuff they need. At 50 I should think you could farm othmir furs, acrylia, yttrium, nodding blue lilies, deepwater ink, hero parts etc. all of which should sell fairly quickly.

You could also offer to do free spell combines for people on your server, asking them to provide the components.

In my experience, being in an uber guild is actually detrimental to tradeskilling, when you raid most nights, you just dont have the time or energy to do tradeskills, so dont feel that not being guilded is holding you back.

Keep plugging away when you feel like it, dont set yourself targets - the RNG is too random for that and dont let TS's get you down, wheres the fun in that?

[Lyrazil]

Well you might think its impossible, you might think "I will never be able to do this", i am here to tell you that with patience and determination it is all possible.

How can you say this? (reading you mind). Let me tell you a little about myself then.

I started tradeskilling about 3 days after i created my first toon. My character is a barbarian warrior, i have never had extra plat ever. Warriors are by far the most gear dependant class i have ever played so all my money for just about ever went into gear upgrades to be able to do the job of my class. 3 or so years ago i got into raiding i really enjoy the challange. Currently i raid 6 days a week 4-6 hours a night. Finding time to work on tradeskills is difficult but with the help of friends and other tradeskillers i have managed to get closer to my goal of 2100 club day by day and combine by combine.

As i continue to raid and improve my character, more avenues have opened up to me as far as what i can farm, but my time to farm it has dwindled. PP supply is still not big but years of reading this board and tracking useful items has helped me to focus on combines with high buyback rates or good bazaar selling prices.

My point is its not impossible, it is often frustrating, irritating and at times just plain depressing. If you take a bit of time, set up a plan, and with luck find someone like myself to help guide you, you will accomplish your goals and the reward is worth the effort.

[Strokker]

ok level 50 enchanter - check.

Still need to know:

What's your current Spell Research skill Strokker?


BTW, have you seen our lovely padded room? we even have a nice long-sleeved robe for you to wear...well, more of a jacket really....nice and soft, though.....

Chanter???!!!??? Ahem, Magician if you please. Calling me a silly, chanter. Harumph, I'll let it slide this time<not like I have a choice..tehe>. My current skill is 137 in Spell research and yes I have been going crazy with Swatches and Practice runes as well...lol. I will get there by hook or crook someday. I think however there has to be an easier way to get up in Spell research without having to mortgage your left leg and both kidneys not to mention other parts of the anatomy.

As to the jacket does it come in extra small I'm not a giant you know.../grin.