Skill ups, salvage and masteries

[Caleem]

I know you have a better chance of skill up on successes than failures. Salvage gives you a chance to get your components back on a fail, therefore letting you have another chance at success and skill up. I have salvage 3 and am planning on doing recipies near my skill for skill ups. My question is: Is it better to get the mastery so that I have a better chance to succeed (and that added skill up chance) or simply try and let the salvage catch it for an added combine (and chance at success or failure).

[Eleena Transient]

If doing combines near your skill level, and you are 200+, then you should already have min chance to fail so mastery won't help much.


It also depends on what you are doing. If you are doing solstice robes, hold off on mastery as you don't want to succeed and lose the chain. If you are doing brewing/baking etc, grab the masteries for more sellback results.

[Caleem]

Oh yeah, forgot to say which tradeskills. Looking at Spell Research (195 currently) and Smithing later (232).

[Dranul]

Oh yeah, forgot to say which tradeskills. Looking at Spell Research (195 currently) and Smithing later (232).

For spell research, to reliably make any of the DoDH research, having mastery AAs is too nice.

[Xislaben]

For spell research, to reliably make any of the DoDH research, having mastery AAs is too nice.

I agree, second only to the AA PitsofHell, which gives you the chance to use less Crystallized Sulfur, much like the reagent focii.

[Boleslav]

For skilling up on recipes near trivial, Salvage will help more than Mastery.

Boleslav

[Caleem]

My original question was whether the mastery would hurt me as I might not get as much salvage. However I was under the mistaken impression that a successful salvage check returned everything.

I have salvage maxed now. Now I'm trying to decide if I should wait for the masteries to start my skill ups.

[Boleslav]

Ahh, that's a different proposition. I would not worry about Masteries costing you extra combines that you might have gotten if you had failed a combine and salvaged the ingredients. The reason is that if you are skilling up on items near trivial, you will be at the max success rate anyway, and Mastery will have no effect on your success rate.

The question then becomes, 'Is Mastery worth getting on it's own merit?".

If you plan on getting to 300 quickly, then the Mastery AA's may not be worth the effort. Many of the most difficult recipes seem to have a 'minimum failure' rate applied to them. Once you get to 300, your normally calculated success rate is high enough for that minimum failure rate to affect it. Mastery would not help you on many, if any, combines.

If you plan to saunter toward 300, and also plan to make some pricey items along the way, then Mastery might be the way to go. That is my situation. My smithing is at about 270 now. I have been making GM armors, and I feel that the BS Mastery 3 has allowed me to have a good a chance to make those armors as someone with max skill.

Lastly, how fast do you get AA? Your AA harvesting rate and your total number of AA are big factors in deciding if 18 AA is too much to pay for a tradeskill AA.

Hope that helps.

Boleslav Forgehammer
Paladin of Brell in his 70th Campaign
Tunare (E'ci) – Sacred Destiny

[Milowfv]

Sony really needs to look at how trvial work on item. I find it just silly that it a waste of time to max a TS, because the min failure rate can be reach at a much lower level. I ve not maxed my Blacksmith or tailoring skill, but the current system is set up so it just dosnt matter if I do or dont.

[Zacatac]

I have rather the same thing going on tailoring from 230-252 doing Solstice robes. In that case, I'd rather NOT get a success, and get my gem studded chain back for another combine.

So while doing robes, I don't equip my +5% geerlock, and I haven't bought any master AA's.

Once I reach 252, I'll probably think about them.