Sunshard slowly going the way of the dodo?

[Heynanni]

I'm just curious, but since the templates were added as a skillup path for tailoring & smithing, has anyone been buying sunshard ore to skillup with? We still buy it purely for my hubby to skillup research as an alternative path, but sunshard is just too expensive compared to templates. Anyone else doing similar and/or has seen the supply/demand for the ore/pebbles changed on their server? Same for velious tailoring, unless you farm your own components, there can't be many people still doing othmir/holgresh right?

Also my hubby and I are crazy nuts always working another race up in tailoring we currently have:
300 tailors- drakkin, halfling, high elf, barbarian
300 smiths- high elf, barbarian, drakkin, dwarf

Any suggestions on another race that usually is popular/good demand for cultural armor? TIA

[Aldier]

Sunshard Ore prices have steadily declined on CT from 1500-2k each to as low as 800. I believe the reason is as you say.

For people that need to work up tinkering or JC, as well as smithing/tailoring/fletching/research/pottery. It is not a bad route to look at.

The ore does not drop more or less often, however I fear some people that just destroy "ore" drops because they think they are useless may be destroying these as well.

[Wyvernwill]

That, and generally speaking, you can get up to 300 Tailoring/Smithing easier and cheaper than the sunshard route using cultural drops.

[maxpower]

i make about 1 full set of chain and plate sunshard stuff a week to recover some costs from buying up tungsten/cobalt ore. and thats only when i can find it cheap. most days sunshard is just as expensive as the other ore but when you add vendor costs it shoots way up.

Ogres make a good choice for smithing and tailoring is good for those kitties

[Druegar]

In the last couple months, Sunshard Ore prices on EMarr have gone up. I used to be able to find it in Bazaar for around 1000. Sometimes as low as 700, but that was rare. Nowadays, I'm shocked if I ever see it lower than 1500, but 2000 seems to be the average. I'm just glad I was able to take advantage of it and max my TSs before the jump.

[hiyawathadan]

I plan to use Sunshard for Fletching skillups.

[Kross]

I plan to use Sunshard for Fletching skillups.

for what recipe? :P i stopped when i got 284 off bows, being a ogre i can't make those spiffy vendor path arrows.

[GrimwoodCT]

You have to realize that Sunshard was likely a test case for the new cultural.
How would world-wide, level-based drops affect the end product community and the stranglehold that the plat seller community had on high end materials?

It was the right decision to make to derail the plat sites/groups. There are still folks that love that stuff and I make it all the time but I strongly suspect that it was a cultural 1.5 before the new stuff came out.

[Aldier]

for what recipe? :P i stopped when i got 284 off bows, being a ogre i can't make those spiffy vendor path arrows.

Glowing Energeaic Bow

Most likely.

Also, I agree with Squeaky that the sunshard model was a test case for the cultural drops. It is not a cheap skill up route but it is an alternative that has many uses from from the JC/tinkered conduits.

[Wyvernwill]

IMO PoR bows are easier to do than Sunshard, but that's a personal opinion. Being able to farm blightfire moor and horse hooves aren't that bad.

[Turlo Lomon]

I am still able to find a pretty good supply just doing random vender diving. The end product sells very well in Bazaar, and I have to restock my vender one or two times a day from the sales. Not bad for a skillup recipe.

[Andarriel]

sunshard ore

I was using sunshard ore to max out my tinkering level 6 to 7 on my alt and then using the large core to evolve my fletching trophy to level 7 on my main. Sunshard was quit nice. Now i have 8 level 7 trophies on my main and my alt gnome is master tinker with level 7 trophy. Next is my shm but not using sunshard ore lol. Was buying ore on buyer anywhere from 500-600 not to bad.

Andarriel