Tailoring, a reason to quit EQ.

[Kibber]

This was originally supposed to be an answer to a post about the insanity of tailoring.

Actually, I was standing on the beach in Cobalt Scar a few months ago, for about the 100th hour (close to being exact) farming Othmirs. (got me 10 skillups) All my tradeskills are 300, except tailoring which is about 275.

So, there I was, a dwarf paladin, smashing away at grey mobs, the chief being the only green mob... As someone writes in the tailoring section, it takes about 10 hours of farming to get 1 skillup. Repop of all the othmir is about 20 mins, you get about 3-7 furs a repop, you need 4 furs pr. combine past 268 skill. But its the best option there is. People who complain about shissar scale farming, well hmm, too bad about the bad streaks, but imagine doing the 100th {darn} combine in othmir cloaks before you get a skillup.

So, I decided, enough is enough. It will take me a further 200 RL hours farming these no xp mobs to get to about 295, where I have to do some other combine type to get to 300. And when I get to 300, what then? I get a new title. Well I may get two titles, as its the last tradeskill I need to get to 300. Of the seven a dwarf pally can do that is.

So, I've taken a break from EQ. Not saying I'm quitting, I might as well have, but never say never Of course there are many other reasons for me to stop EQ, but for certain tradeskilling has been one of the big things in EQ for me. The ability to make people stuff they could not get otherwise, and only through my hard work. However this is not true at all anymore. I very rarely get any requests to do tough combines like GM stuff, and when I do, its only for 3rd alts. As I say, I would get one or two titles, my tradeskill charm would get its last 2 hps and 1 AC. For 200 more hours of senseless bashing no xp mobs.

Its just too silly. I can advance my mental state quicker by staring into a wall for the same period of time. Or relax better, or whatever it is that EQ gives you.

I really applaud the way they are trying to implement the posibility of getting xp while farming tradeskill stuff as they have with spider silks, but its too little too late for me. And anyway, I have not seen anything that at all will change the way tailoring goes. Its just about impossible now after the Solstice robe nerf.

If I do come back to EQ at some point, it won't be for tradeskilling.

Kibber, The Rathe.

[GrimwoodCT]

Ugh. I am sorry Kibber. I feel your pain.
I've suggested this to other dwarves: tailored Master's augs.
I believe dwarves can make those and you would still get exp mobs (light blue to 75). I can farm them all day with my gimp 75 pally/75 enchanter 2 man group. The exp is steady and fun. I get a stack of nightmare arachnid silks every hour (enough for 10 attempts). If your paladin is good he can probabaly solo the camps after the initial split of the doubles.

2 silks = 1 swatch + 1 crushed diamond dust and you can skill up to 300+ on the master's augs. They resell well if you are patient and buy the crushed diamond dusts at reasonable prices. If you want to bargain basement it, go to for osme of the CDD droppers in TSS zones but they are rather widespread. My advice is farm the silk, buy the dusts and make skill up runs and bank space allows.

Just a thought and I hope I wasn't incorrect or out of line recommending it.

[Maevenniia]

We Tradeskillers are a little bit masochistic, and just a little bit crazy, too.

But every once in a while we return to sanity.

Looks like this is your time. Enjoy it while it lasts.

[Flehmen]

I'll say it again, best thing I ever did was quit tradeskills.

Since then, (about 6-9 months ago) I've had all kinds of enjoyable tradeskill successes, and done a bunch of leveling on two new toons.

I'm just not worried about getting to 300 anymore and that made all the difference.

Take care and good luck!

[olhoss]

Honestly, I think your time might be better spent farming plat (vellums, parchments, runes, gear) instead of Othmir Furs. I found myself buying about half of the ones that I used to make the cloaks because I couldn't stand to spend so many hours slaughtering more otters than JJ Astor.

You can still farm them some, it just won't take as many hours. I would also recommend doing some Holgreshes for a change of pace.

I agree that tailoring is out of whack with other skills for the path to 300, but until that gets fixed it's the best we can do.

[Kibber]

I always looked for othmir furs in the bazaar when I logged on, and usually I'd see none at all. Rarely I'd see maybe 8 furs at 600pp a piece. Which isn't so bad when you need 2 furs pr combine, but its too much for the cloak that needs 4 furs.

As to the master augments that I can make, sure I have made quite a few of those, and can quite easily farm the light blue mobs in PoN solo as a pally. The drawback here are the CDD, that when TSS came out, sold for a decent price, but are now back to about 3k a piece. As well as being rare again. At least in the bazaar.

It looks like that when TSS came out, that either alot of people came back and got the CDD as loot when they farmed xp on their way to 75, and now that everyone is 75, they don't get farmed anymore. Or that the drop rate on them have been fixed to alot less than before.

Either way, othmir is still the sanest of the viable options, and as it is now its about the dullest way you can spend time in a MPORG as you possibly can. Why make a complete virtual world, when all you do to make something difficult to attain is not the tradeskill itself, but the farming of the items needed for the required combines? I mean, I wouldn't even give the result of these combines to my bazaar mule to wear!

Kibber, The Rathe.

[Wyvernwill]

Tailoring comes down to one of two choices. Buy Glossy Drake Hides and make GM symbols, or farm Othmir/Holgresh furs.

The GM symbols are the easy route. +10% bonus to skilling up helps a lot, plus they do resell fairly well. Unfortunately, that's about the only help I can really offer to ways to skill up.

[olhoss]

Master symbols aren't bad now that CDD can be farmed a little anyway. As far as the cost/availability of Othmir Furs in the bazaar, it depends on the server. On Luclin, these are failry regularly farmed for plat so they are generally available unless some twisted freak like me is buying them all up to work on tailoring. What you have to do is set a price for yourself and stick to it. As a rule, I was buying at 400pp or under. Since I was farming half the furs, this meant I was paying 800pp for furs per combine. I upped my number a little toward the end when the RNG was giving me the Denkinger treatment and I was a little desperate.

Despite what a pain they are to farm, Othmir and Holgresh Furs are still probably the easiest route, unless you can find CDD for a reasonable price to make symbols or know where to farm them.

[kekenewah]

nefred rate of CDD drops

The drops rates of CDD in TSS have been nerfed significantly. I was getting 4-5 CDD per 30 minutes LOTD burn when TSS first came out in the Steppes and Blackfeather Roost. Now I get 1 every 4 hours. It always happens that way when a new expansion is released. SOE lures people into buying the expansion and then pulls the rug out from under you after you spend the money.

[Wyvernwill]

See this is the thing that always confuses and frustrates me. You state that you'll buy Othmir furs for 400 or less. Since it takes four othmir furs to get one cloak combine... that's 1600 plat. So what's wrong with paying upwards of 2k per CDD when you get a bonus 5% chance to skill up? Creepers in PoN... unless you are low level, aren't that difficult to kill.

It's perspective of how people choose to look at things.

[Maevenniia]

The drops rates of CDD in TSS have been nerfed significantly. I was getting 4-5 CDD per 30 minutes LOTD burn when TSS first came out in the Steppes and Blackfeather Roost. Now I get 1 every 4 hours. It always happens that way when a new expansion is released. SOE lures people into buying the expansion and then pulls the rug out from under you after you spend the money.

Are you pulling/killing the same mobs/camp of mobs, at the same rate as before?

Also, it may not be a nerf of CDD so much as an adjustment in the loot tables mandated for some other reason (ex: not enough quest drops, perhaps...)

[Ngreth Thergn]

The drops rates of CDD in TSS have been nerfed significantly. I was getting 4-5 CDD per 30 minutes LOTD burn when TSS first came out in the Steppes and Blackfeather Roost. Now I get 1 every 4 hours. It always happens that way when a new expansion is released. SOE lures people into buying the expansion and then pulls the rug out from under you after you spend the money.

There has been no alteration whatsoever in the drop tables that drop gems.

And with some recent changes (that I believe are in game) there is no longer a limit of 8 items per NPC meaning that it would also not be pushed off the NPC if too many other drops happened.

If that code is NOT yet in, then if yes, someone increased the drop rate of quest items, it is entirely possible the gems are being pushed off the NPC. But when the code change goes in, it will "come back" But I thought I heard about dragons suddenly dropping tons of times (they always had problems with the drops being cut off at 8) which would mean the code is in.

But the gem drop tables (where CDD is) has NOT been nerfed. Do note... it is only in a certain level range... so if you have moved to higher level mobs... you may no longer be in the range of where it drops.

[olhoss]

See this is the thing that always confuses and frustrates me. You state that you'll buy Othmir furs for 400 or less. Since it takes four othmir furs to get one cloak combine... that's 1600 plat. So what's wrong with paying upwards of 2k per CDD when you get a bonus 5% chance to skill up?

Not really anything to be conused about...the thing is I was buying only about half the ones I needed so I was only spending 800 pp per combine and farming the rest. On top of which I did tailoring before CDD were selling for less than 5K-7K. It all depends on your server, and like anything else on how much you would pay to save time farming.

[kekenewah]

Then I either had a really great RNG run on CDD when TSS came out or I am having a really bad run on RNG with CDD now as I am hunting in the same zone and same mobs.

There has been no alteration whatsoever in the drop tables that drop gems.

And with some recent changes (that I believe are in game) there is no longer a limit of 8 items per NPC meaning that it would also not be pushed off the NPC if too many other drops happened.

If that code is NOT yet in, then if yes, someone increased the drop rate of quest items, it is entirely possible the gems are being pushed off the NPC. But when the code change goes in, it will "come back" But I thought I heard about dragons suddenly dropping tons of times (they always had problems with the drops being cut off at 8) which would mean the code is in.

But the gem drop tables (where CDD is) has NOT been nerfed. Do note... it is only in a certain level range... so if you have moved to higher level mobs... you may no longer be in the range of where it drops.