KyrosKrane's Skillup Blog

[tnexus]

I did 1300 MTPs before the new interface, talk about bad memories...

[KyrosKrane]

Well, today didn't go quite as expected, but it was nevertheless quite fulfulling. =)

First, I banged out the remaining six skill points in baking to DING 300. =) I also managed to sell off most of my picnics, so I actually came out ahead on the cost of skilling up.

Then I turned to fletching. I'd gotten to 268 on arrows, so I decided to see how far the vendor-bought route would get me. 50K later, I was at 278 fletching. That's 5kpp per skill point -- OUCH!

After that, I did lots of pottery and got to 267. I still have plenty of supplies, though I need more mana vials. When I get those, I should get to 282 easily. After that, I plan to do the Star Ruby steins.

After that, I decided to make a run at brewing. 300+ combines of Brut Champagne later, I'm at 277 brewing.

Finally, I had 31 smithing combines left over, plus some random stuff like inlays for augs. Beween all that, I got smithing to 283. =)

So, where are we today?

Status update:
Baking: 300 DING!
Blacksmithing: 283
Fletching: 278
Brewing: 277
Pottery: 267

[Boleslav]

You have really gone full-speed toward 2100! Congats on your continuing achievements!

I can't help but to look at your skillup paths and wonder if any will survive the impending changes. Only people with your type of ambition will be able to get several skills to 300 before the trivial nerf bat swings again.

Good for you for taking advantage of the time you have been given.

Boleslav Forgehammer
Paladin of Brell in his 67th Campaign
E'ci – Sacred Desitny

[CaiserSoze]

with the nerf to tailoring making gem studded chains worthless... can do LDoN jewelery - velium + amethyst, polished quartz, or geode all over 300, foraged - barter area good for getting those in bulk only problem is that vendors do not take cost of velium into account when re-buying.... only buy for like 3 gold, so you have to eat the cost of velium, 250p per combine...

[Twistagain]

Then why not just do the gem-studded chains anyway? All storebought (except for the level 8(?) enchant)...and just a shade more expensive than the velium. Why waste the effort trying to obtain geodes and amethysts?

Either way, you lost the cash. Why make it more difficult on yourself at the same time?

Edit: Nevermind. I was wrong. GSC combine TOTALS 250.545p from a vendor. That is all inclusive (even the waters.) Velium Bar alone is 262.5p. GSC are still cheaper, even after sellback...and easier to get supplies for en masse.

[Wyvernwill]

I'm sitting at 282 JC myself after last nights run cost me almost 25k. Ended on the note of Vellium Ruby Veils. After looking at costs I realized a bit too late that GSC were a lot cheaper lol woops, oh well. GSC aren't really a loss as main is now becoming my GM tailor... I had created a necro alt back in velious cause I could get his int to 250, where my paladin had a nasty 130 some wis.

PoP came out and I had to rework tailoring to do the Aid grimel quest. Let me tell you, working up tailoring twice stunk!

[Qualan]

Velium blue diamond bracer > 300

As long as you vendor farm enough BD's this is a viable option and with enchanted velium the loss is less than GSC- after sell back-

I'm just stuck on fletching

300 all except fletching - 284 fletching and farming .....


Anyway good luck on the skillups and hope most paths will be finished before the full realignment

[KyrosKrane]

A friend was most helpful with her enchanter today, so I got some happy work done. =) I got in some more of the smithing, pottery, and brewing combines, though I feel almost guilty for leaving fletching alone.

One thing I forgot to mention in my last update. After I was done with my skillup run, a friend invited me to group. We went to RCoD (we had the zone pretty much to ourselves) and I banged out the remaining 13% to DING 70. =) So other than building up a buffer for deaths, I can now focus on AA again, which means I can finally get around to buying salvage 3 and smithing mastery 3. =)

A couple of things to think about, though. At raw skill 300 with a 5% mod, I will have the max chance of success (95%) on pretty much any combine in the game -- I believe the highest known trivial for any combine is 351. Skill Mastery 3 might push that up to 97.5%, but I really have to question whether the extra 2.5% chance of success is worth 18 AA. On the other hand, Salvage will always be useful, since there's always a chance to fail. I think I'll get smithing mastery 3 just as a matter of pride (I consider myself a smith first, notwithstanding my mad dash in tailoring) and skip the other masteries for now, until I see a decent use for them.

I don't know if I'll have much time to tradeskill tomorrow, but with luck, I can round off fletching to 282, at least. I'll see if I have time for other tradeskills as well.

Status update:
Blacksmithing: 286
Brewing: 282
Pottery: 272

[Bobaten]

There has been some question as to whether the known success formula is accurate for skill>250. Augment cutting success seems to be closer to 70% success than 95% success at 300(315) skill. It is possible this was done to keep the mastery aa's useful. But we still need more data on high trivial combines.

[andyhre]

Wouldn't it be nice if the Gem Studded Chains stacked? You could actually skill up on these conveniently and then hand them over to a tailor, without needing an entire alt just for GSC storage.

... assuming the tailor was <252

:-)

[KyrosKrane]

Well, what to say ... over the last few days, I've slipped in a few combines here and there, but I'm starting to hit a brick wall in terms of supplies and subcombines. I don't like doing subcombines, so I've had buys up on my trader for them. However, due to a bug in the buyer system (shock! horror!), a few of my buy lines got erased. I was feeling particularly frustrated at why no one was selling me these subcombines when previously I had all subcombine buys filled within 24 hours. Well, it turns out that they got erased by the bug, and that was why I wasn't getting any.

Anywho, I finally cave in and do some of the subcombines by hand, and my newly restored buy lines do their job and I have a buyer loaded with gear. Earlier today, I settled down for a proper, hard-core smithing session. Several thousand plat worth of mistletoe sickles later, DING 300. =)

I've been funding my tradeskills with revenues from Omens tradeskill augs, and yesterday I managed to complete four big orders that had been pending for a while. Feeling flush with cash, I tackled the few points I had left in archery and hit 282. I'm probably gonna hold there for a while; I've never been much of a fletcher, so I may just wait to see how the improve skillup paths before I come back to fletching.

Still not satisfied, I did a run of pottery stuff. Some 200-odd pottery combines later, I was at 276.

Somewhere along the line, I did some stray brewing combines, and I'm up to 285 in that. I think in the next few days I'll crank out some more champagne magnums (or just make a buy line for them; did I mention I LOVE bartering? ) and finish off brewing. That leaves me with just pottery and fletching; and pottery is just a matter of throwing enough cash into imbued idols and star ruby steins.

So, here we are. The end is in sight.

Status update:
Smithing: DING 300!
Brewing: 285
Fletching: 282
Pottery: 276

[Trellium]

However, due to a bug in the buyer system (shock! horror!), a few of my buy lines got erased.

Is that a bug, or is that from you hitting the maximum buy criteria you had set, and EQ removing the buyline? If you set 20 as a max to buy, and then people sell you 20 then the line itself is deleted.

I don't think its a bug, its probably "working as intended". However, I would prefer if it would just set the line to inactive instead. If thats what happened to you, then maybe feedback it so we might have that changed. Its probably a small fix for SOE, since toggling the "active" mode on an existing buyer line is easier than deleting the entire line from the ini file.

[Tanker]

Nope, it's an actual bug.
http://eqforums.station.sony.com/eq/...d=69589#M69589

It's been fixed on Test, and should go Live at the next update. Sorry about that, guys.

My suggestion for now is, when you come back to check on your buy lines, leave and re-enter Buyer Mode. That syncs the server back up to your client's list of Buylines.

[KyrosKrane]

My suggestion for now is, when you come back to check on your buy lines, leave and re-enter Buyer Mode. That syncs the server back up to your client's list of Buylines.

Tanker, the problem with that (as you note on the linked page) is that the INI file that stores your buy lines is itself getting corrupted. When you exit and restart buyer mode, it may indeed resync the client and server buy lines, but the set of buy lines is updated based on the INI file. Since the INI file has the incorrect lines, you enter buyer mode with the incorrect buy list.

Here's another example. Create a few random buy lines, start buyer mode, then close the buyer window (which ends your buying mode, of course). Without logging off, while EQ is still running, open that character's BART*.INI file using a text editor, and fiddle with the buy lines. Maybe add a buy line, remove another one, change quantities, whatever. You can even replace the BART file with a completely different one, so long as the file name remains the same. Then, switch back to EQ and re-open the buyer window. You'll see the changes immediately reflected in the buyer list.

When the bug happens, the incorrect buy line is immediately written to the INI file, overwriting another (valid) buy line. Restarting buyer mode doesn't help in this case because it simply reloads the invalid buys.

Does that kinda make sense?

At any rate, there's not much we as players can do, other than to keep a close eye on our buy lines (in case of unexpected deletions) and wait for the fixing patch.

[KyrosKrane]

Well, it's been a busy few days, and RL has been kicking my butt, again. When I logged on to EQ at all, I usually spent the time grouping (Stillmoon missions for my Grandmaster quest book) or raiding with my guild.

I finally got in some skillup time yesterday, and I blasted through most of my pottery supplies. I finished off imbued idols to get to 282, then I did a few stacks of ruby steins to get to 287. I was really disappointed with the skillup rate, though. It seemed to average out somewhere around one skillup per 40 combines, or double what it's been taking for the other skills.

Today, I had over 20 stacks of champagne magnums lined up. I brewed up a few stacks of soda water, made them into brut champagne, cleaned out my inventory, and repeated, over and over. A few minutes ago, I finally dinged 300 with a few stacks of magnums left. =)

So, by my count, that just leave pottery to finish up, then whatever I can get in Fletching. I'm pretty close to my goal now. =)

Status update:
Brewing: DING! 300!
Pottery: 287