Geerlok or NO??

[elcamino66040]

I have been playing everquest for 11 weeks now and find the game awesome.
I am working on my brewing, I have a 225 unmodified Brewing skill. I have been using a geerlok since I started. I read in another article on here, but can not findit now, that the higher you got the less skillups you recieved by using a geerlok (paraphrasing). Is there any truth to this? I have noticed an unusually high number of successes with no skill ups for the last 8 - 10 points (100+ combines per raise) Thanks for any help that you might provide.


Goddard
53 Druid
Torvonillous
225 Brewing
172 Tailoring
187 Fishing
158 Baking

[Akishka]

The easy answer is that having a geerlok equiped does not do anything to hurt your skill ups.

The more complicated answer:

Being successful increases your chance of skill ups (I believe by twice as much).

Having a high primary stat increases your chance of skill ups (but not as much as success).

So, how does a geerlok work with this? If you are losing some of your primary stat by equipping a geerlok then you are decreasing your chance of success. However, you are probably not losing that much of your stat and your are increasing your chance to skill up by a greater margin since you succeed more. So its probably best to use your geerlok.

However, everybody is different and your milage may vary. Lets say you are within a few points of trivial and a geerlok isn't helping that much, you'd want to go ahead and leave your primary stat item in. However, lets say the item in your primary slot does not contibute to your primary stat at all or that you are capped even without your primary item. Then you would want to leave the geerlok in at all times because its not costing you anything.

When I had the Scimitar of the Emerald Dawn (lots of mana, no wis) I always equipped my geerlok. Now I have my epic (lots of wis) but if I have KEI, I'm capped at 255 even without my epic equipped. So, I will equip my geerlok anytime I have KEI. However, if I don't have KEI, I need my sword to be maxed wisdom. In this case, I try to only do things that are very close to trivial and I don't equip the geerlok.

[Eoghnved]

Right now I normally keep my Staff of the Wheel equipped in my primary slot for the +10 INT rather than a geerlok, unless I'm working on something way above my skill level where I need the extra chance for success. I used a geerlok when making my GM Baker's Spoon, but I rarely used it while skilling up. Of course, I haven't gone above 200 in Brewing yet, since I'm only level 43 and can't yet take the AA.

[Nolrog]

I have been playing everquest for 11 weeks now and find the game awesome.
I am working on my brewing, I have a 225 unmodified Brewing skill. I have been using a geerlok since I started. I read in another article on here, but can not findit now, that the higher you got the less skillups you recieved by using a geerlok (paraphrasing). Is there any truth to this? I have noticed an unusually high number of successes with no skill ups for the last 8 - 10 points (100+ combines per raise) Thanks for any help that you might provide.

For brewing, I don't think it's that big of a deal either way (for smithing or tailoring, my answer is very different). Hero's brew is pretty cheap to make, will take you to 248, and really easy with the new UI and Abysmal (where everything is sold on two vendors right next to each other, and about 5 feet from the brew barrel). Since your skill is pretty high, you may want to try the GM trophy, which will give you both the modified skill and the stat increase. The only thing is that the brewing trophy is the most expensive one to make because of the corking device.

[elcamino66040]

Thanks

Thank you all for your help! I am now a 250 brewer with Trophy. I am able to keep a maxxed wisdom (currently 255) even while holding the geerlok.
I am also working on Tailoring again and noticed you (Nolrog) said for smithing and tailoring your answer would be different... How so? Again thanks for all your inputs and insights.

Goddard

[Tillinghast]

For Tailoring the answer is simple, some combines have a very expensive subcombine that get returned on failure, so you hope to continue failing as it is easier to get the other items needed (emeralds and silk swatches basically). If you succeeded, you would lose a few hundred plat by making an item that is already a glut on the market, the ceremonial solistice robe.

Tillinghast
Vendor Mule
Knowledge Rich, Graphics Poor

Edited to correct poor grammar.

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