DoN Armor ..Success or Failure..??

[Kkrunch]

I have been waiting to buy the DoN expansion in order to have a chance to assess the success or failure of the DoN Cultural Armor. It appears, to me, that Cultural armor and Symbols are starting to stack up in the bazaar. Each week, it seems the inventory is greater than the last.

I am interested in your opinions as to whether the Cultural Armor has been a success or not. I am currently trying to decide if I want to continue skilling up Smithing (currently 188) or change to another tradeskill. I am also trying to decide if it is worth it, from a tradeskilling point of view, to buy the latest expansions. I realize it is a major challenge for Sony to keep some kind of balance between items that are crafted and items that are dropped. Have they succeeded or failed? What do you think?

[Kcalehc]

I think cultural armour did pretty well. The journeymans and experts probably the least so, as with many low level intended stuff theres alot available in the bazaar or for easy farming that will serve you better at these levels really.
Masters is a good step forward from the previous cultural armours, the addition of the augments with FT/regen/+DS on them helps alot to make this a decent choice for those who can't afford Planar Ornate upon reaching 55. The GM level stuff personally I think is amazing; I doubt I could have got hold of anything comparable myself through drops by now and would still be wearing magnetic if it never happened.
For what it takes to make and the quality of armour (3 aug slots a piece makes a big difference too) I do think that the new cultural armours have been a success.

As to the question that you seem to be asking under all that (which I deduce to be: can I make money from this?); I'd say yes, but not as much as you could have made if you had the expansion on day one and made stuff then. As with almost all things TS in EQ if you are there at the start there's a mountain of plat to be made, until everyone catches on, then it's business as usual in the bazaar. They are stacking up not because of how good/bad they are, but because they have become a skill up route just like everything else.

[Ishwar]

DoN armor is a major success at least master and GM levels. It is reasonably balanced, yest still very desireable. The update to make other pieces than chest /legs have decend stats was nice.

The best indication of the succes of something tradeskil related, is the availability and price of the components involved. Metalic drake scales are pretty expensive to get, and so is crushed diamond dust. I believe at the current price od crushed diamond dust ther are even people who chosse to hunt places to farm it for resale.

As a rogue, i absolutly love the 60 atk the master wrists+gloves+boots gives me.

GM level stuff is simply the best tradeable gear around, at least for a good number of slots/classes.

If anything, with the most reason upgrqade DoN armor os seriously hurting the market for bazu and magnetic armor.

[Wyvernwill]

99ac on the Breastplate
81ac on the legs
59 ac on the sleeves

All items over two hundred hps currently with the augs I have in them..

By far the best droppable gear around. Plus it gives you plenty of reasons to farm don crystals lmao. Gathering the supplies can be a pain, but I consistently get commissioned to make both masters and GM level armors.

[Bumkus]

With release of DoD, supplies of Glossy Drake Hides and Metallic Drake Scales on Fennin have declined dramatically. I think people were seriously burned out on The Creator mission and looking for something else to do. Last night there was 1 seller at 30K for the Glossy Drake Hide, and an assortment of GM leg and chest augs at 35K. I would expect DoN GM ingrediants to become more rare as new expansions are released, unless code is changed to allow GDH, MDS, and CSS's to drop in low-level instances or, better yet, in non-instanced zones.

[Leana]

On Seventh Hammer, I've done quite well making and selling master and grandmaster symbols. I keep a stock of them on my trader and sell up to four a day. I watch the prices of scales and hides (yes, I can make symbols from either), and purchase in any quantity when the price is right. Then I fill my seller up on the symbols.

Scales and hides have been rarer since the latest release. The bottom price raised by 1/3rd of it's price, so I made a corresponding raise in my selling price. The prices may continue to rise, in which case, the armor prices will be raised. However, even with the prices going up, it seems that they are selling just as well.

At first I sold only legs and tunic symbols, but the improvement to the armor made it such that any symbol will sell. Arms are especially good sellers, and I cannot seem to keep them in stock. All other pieces sell better than they did.


Now, some other comments on your questions. You can skill up to 222 in smithing with ease. Farm velium from Tizmaks, giants, or in Crystal Caverns. Make enchanted velium bits. It's easy and quick. If you want to go the farming route from there, you can raise your skill to 252 making shadowscream. Then you can make a profit while skilling on the following:

bazu 282
magnetized 282
muramite metal sheet 282
masters 300
grandmasters 300

Since I have returned to the game, I have raised my skill to 286 and only made 20 sickle attempts. All the rest has been made from the above 5 items. It is not unusual for me to buy and sell over 100k in the bazaar on any given day.

I hope this helps.

Leana Soulwarden
Blacksmith
Inevitable Storm
The Seventh Hammer

[Kkrunch]

Responses

These responses have been very helpful. I expecially appreciate the skill up suggestions. I made a stoopid mistake today...burned about 80 combines on enchanted velium bits cause I had hit 200 and didnt know about the new taanan crafting aa requirement (have 282 jc). Some kind person in PoK responded to an ooc by me asking for help.
It is really nice to get this help from fellow tradeskillers. Anyone else have thoughts on DoN; success or failure? Or, for that matter, skilling from 200 to GM.
Thanx,

[Angelsyn]

I still sell Expert & Master level Augs semi-regularly... it's tough getting the supplies though, when you don't have a lot of time to hunt.

GM armour doesn't sell fast, but it does sell. I rarely have competition for GM Moonglade sales, too.

There are a couple of very good threads in the Smithing section about skilling up.