An effective tradeskill race/class

[Amparo]

I have been playing Everquest for 6 years and have used this site since it was printed on a mimeograph. The premiere tradeskill site.

The main character I play is a level 70 Monk with 100 AAs spent. She has Fletching at 164 and a few other skills under 100 but I want to start putting more effort into tradeskills with the short term goal of reaching 200+ in one or more and the long term possibility of mastering several and the corresponding AAs. I should add that I am unguilded and do not have access to large amounts of platinum. Through natural hunting, I keep an account balance range of about 4000-20,000 pp.

My question is, do you recommend working on a Druid or Ranger for the obvious benefits of tracking, gating and foraging or does already having an established level 70 character offset those three advantages?

Also, what other race/class advantages and disadvantages should I be considering? I should mention I am knowledgeable about the Tinkering, Make Poison and Alchemy class restrictions, all of the imbuing and cultural recipe factors, etcetera.

Any opinions and advice would be appreciated.

[Moraganth]

My opinion has always been.. play the toon you like. If you start a toon purely for a tradeskill, they feel kinda funky to play... or, you end up really liking the class. You know some of the limitations already... so if you want to soften the effects of those, you could do that with mules.

[Ishwar]

I would say that by far the best option is to do tradeskills with your main. Unless you have something specific you want to make that your main does not get access to, the stats a main always has in abundance, and the much easier access to AAs makes it the right choice. Also you may want to do some quest involving tradeskills some day.

Personally I have always had much enjoyment out of using some of the things I made.

It may be a good idea to start an alt to do some of your farnming/imbuing, but i would stick to my main for doing the combines.

So my advice is to stick with you main, and pick up tailoing. Depending on your server there might be a decent unsupplied market the DoN armor.

[Flehmen]

Myself, as a matter of preference, like gnome enchanters for TSing. I'm making Fur a journeyman artisan, and will likely push through to GM once she's of a level. Advantages, can enchant, can create vials of mana, very high int(Okay, I've maxed int +15 with the new DON armor upgrades for my level) and generally everyone likes an agnostic gnome with illusions. The disadvantage is that I'm agnostic so no easy fletching path for me unless these new javelins work out. No forage or track(but my main has both..).

Otherwise I've done TSing in line with roleplaying. I've found that that way, until Fur gets up there I've no worries about spending AAs just to master a trade I'd like...

I'd have to agree with what has been said through. You got to play what you like and not pick someone else's idea of the perfect TS toon.

Good luck!
Ten.

[Buns]

You need to ask yourself, do you really want to spend the time, to level a new character (gnomish chanter perhaps) to level 70 + a couple of 100aa's?? I know I wouldnt, play the character you like to play and TS of him/her. If your only looking for 200 on the TS 20kpp should be a fine start. Eventually your'll need a couple of alt mules to carry all your junk (anyone who doesnt isnt a real TSer), so you can level them to the point where they can imbue, forage & chant for your main (i personally have a 51 chant. 51 ranger & 35 druid, purely created for my main to TS off).

In a perfect world i think that maybe my halfling rogue should have been a gnome so I could tinker, but would I really want to swap handsome hairy footed for middle-aged bald midget?? I think not....

[Zaltak]

Unless your working on baking or brewing or fletching then you don't really need a forager.However lots of TS items are foraged in the DoN zones now.:-)

[Jecour]

gnome rogue might be nice
or
gnome enchanter

[Nolrog]

Unless your working on baking or brewing or fletching then you don't really need a forager.However lots of TS items are foraged in the DoN zones now.:-)

Or alchemy.

Gnome enchanter. Enchanters work on their INT normally (since it adds to their mana pool) and high INT gives you a better chance to get a skill up. The benefit of a gnome rogue, would be tinkering AND poison making of course, but then you'd want to buy a separate set of tradeskill gear to raise your WIS or INT (whichever is easier to raise) to equip when you are making runs.