Freelance, or Fletch for a Guild?

[Pondlife]

Very close to becoming a GM Fletcher - its now down to the last few skill points, and having the will to focus on them rather than catching up on levelling.

Anyway, I'd really love to put all this work to good use, and wondered whether anyone here has specifically (exclusively) fletched for a guild (and thus, presumably, benefitted from the guild as a result), rather than advertising the skill and making bows/arrows for anyone?

[Greymantle]

Hmm not sure what you are really asking here. I fletch bows for my guild, and have outfitted most of them with nightmares at this point. But i don't get asked all that often to make thing for others. Depend's on your market. if you are planning on doing elemental bows you are going to need help from someone anyway just to get the strings. A lot of the elemental string drops are being restricted on sale outside of the guild that obtains it. Your miallage may vary.

[Pondlife]

Grey, that's pretty much what I was getting at.

As a follow-up question, do you think its worthwhile advertising your skills to get in to a guild, therby potentially improving the chances of getting in to a well structured, well managed and established guild?

Bear in mind I am on Stromm Server, so being established is a relative thing only. At the end of the day, I want to join a quallity guild and be useful in it. I'm hoping that fletching GM, along with any abilities as a ranger, will get me an 'in'.

Thanks.

[Greymantle]

Ahh sorry , i see what your asking now. Unfortunatly i don't have a clue as to the answer. I can only advise form my point of view. Except for about 2 weeks after a server split i have allways been in a guild. That being said, i am an officer in my guild. I can tell you that the subject of what trade skill a new appliant can bring us has NEVER come up. It's not a quality that we look for in new recruits. We do encourage our members to do tradeskills, but its not a make or break thing. I am the highest level fletcher in my guild, but not at 250. There are few and far between, tradeskill items that be made easily by casual guild tradskillers, that could have a Norath shattering effect on the 'quality ' of the guild. If you like to fletch, do so. Don't count on it have much impact on getting into a guild. Unless it's a tradeskill based guild , and those are extreamly rare.

[Pondlife]

Fair enough - luckily I worked on fletching for personal gratification, rather than to benefit others, although being able to use the skill for others would be a bonus.

I'll take the approach of joining a guild, and then offering fletching services. We'll see what happens.

Thanks for the info. Now to find the right guild.....

[Emeraldeye]

Aye

I am on Kane Bayle and an officer in my guild. We do ask in the app what tradeskills you are interested in and also have an area where members post their current tradeskill levels if they wish to offer those skills to their fellow guildies. We encourge tradeskilling and even help each other with subcombines and farming materials. However this is a bonus as tradeskill levels are not a determining factor. Your personality and willingness to work with and help others is the biggest factor to getting in. Tradeskills are just a bonus.

[Osprey]

I guess it kind of depends.

When you talk about a good guild, that can mean a lot of things. While the organizational qualities are one thing, the other question is what stage of the game are they at?

I'd guess that any guild that is high end - elemental or time or even before that - has in house tradeskill people that can do just about anything they need. At the extreme end, some of them have mules skilled up just for that. In this case your skills are not that much of a draw for them since they have it all in house.

On the other hand, a guild that is less advanced in the game might not have those resources and you may be more attractive to them. However I don't think anyone would say that a trade skill would make-or-break an applicant. It's a nice-to-have, a little extra factor in your favor.

As for services in general, I was fletching when the high end first started i.e. Tunarean stuff. For a while I had the market to myself, then others got into it. Eventaully I moved out of it. When nightmares and elemental bows came along, more people skilled up and even more with trade skill earrings. At this point, it's really not all that hard to find someone who's skilled in a trade, so our individual worth has dropped a lot. So for me, if someone finds me or knows about my fletching and wants a combine - sure no problem. But I don't find it worth the time to play in the market - there are just too many people with high fletching skills now.

[Pondlife]

Thanks for the reply, Osprey.

Given that Stromm has only been around since May, and with the lack high-skill bows and arrows for sale at the bazaar, it seems there aren't that many GM fletchers there. Of course they exist (I met one last night), but if they are there, for the most part they keep quiet.

I have not seen any evidence of a 250 skill fletcher on this board (in Stromm), and only one or two people above 202. Not to say every GM tradeskiller will read or even post here, but generally if you are dedicated enough to get to GM status, you will read and even become part of boards such as this. I know thats what I did.

Anyway - I'll keep on doing what I do, namely fletching my own arrows and bows, play with pick-up groups, and if I get to join a good guild along the way then so much the better. Currently working on making a BFT - just need to find a friendly Chanter and I'm there (subject to the RNG, of course).

[Osprey]

but generally if you are dedicated enough to get to GM status, you will read and even become part of boards such as this. I know thats what I did.

And there you have it. This statement used to be very true - if you got to that level, you almost certainly got here with the help of the community. But these days it just doesn't feel the same. People are grinding up tradeskills to complete the earring quest, or the shawl quests, and it's just a means to an end. Once they're done their quest, it gets set aside and just something else they happen to have in their bag of tricks. I'm not against more people doing trades - not in the least. It just seems like there's a lot more people who plat-burned their way to 250 and don't really care much about the art itself.

Such is life.