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A couple friends of mine and I have returned to the game, and I'm helping him with tradeskills. We've got plat to burn, so naturally the focus is on vendor-only recipes. But that spawned a conversation; would it be possible to do the opposite, to level without any vendor components whatsoever? After quibbling over whether things like the training quests count, we settled on this form of the question:
The answer appears to be no, 2100 is impossible. I believe that 1795 is the highest possible tradeskill count obtained without ever buying an object from a vendor (directly or indirectly). I'm interested to see if anyone has any refinements on that judgment.
I've presented these as "skill paths", but please note that this is intended as an intellectual exercise. No one -- and I mean no one -- should attempt this for real. That way lies worse than madness.
Baking (215)
The conduct really hurts here. You can't get Spices. You can't get Jugs of Sauce. You can't get Skewers. But, shockingly, you can still be a Baker!
135: Fish Rolls (Bat Wing, Fresh Fish)
142: Rolled Cutlassfish (Bat Wing, Iceclad Cutlassfish)
Bat Wings drop off bats, as everyone knows. Fresh Fish can be looted from various fish mobs, foraged in Kedge Keep, or fished. Fishing is possible without vendor interaction. Get fishing poles from a variety of sources (kobold fisherman in The Warrens are likely the best choices), and forage for bait. Fish in Iceclad and you'll also get Cutlassfish that can push you another 7 skill.
215: Tae Ew Roll (Bat Wing, Chunk of Tae Ew Meat)
Chunks of Tae Ew Meat are a ~10% drop off many of the lizards in Temple of Cazic-Thule. Have fun with the mass lizard slaughter (and countless more dead bats) to hit 215. And that's as far as we can go, unless I've missed something. Virtually every Baking recipe needs one of the basic vendor-only cooking ingredients.
Brewing (300)
In order to begin our vendorless Brewing challenge, we have to first address a key item in this entire process: the humble Water Flask. We're foreclosed from buying them, and we can't make them ourselves; you can forage Pods of Water, but not the Bottle needed to turn them into Flasks. Luckily, a number of mobs drop them. The best drop rates are from the desert madmen in the Desert of Ro, but a variety of newbie-level mobs around the original world have them on the loot table. Brewing isn't the only tradeskill that will depend on these Water Flasks. Anyone foolish enough to actually attempt this faces a future of slaughtering hundreds of thousands of these mobs for the vast amount of water required. It's sort of an EQ/Mad Max crossover.
21: Flask of Berry Juice (2x Berries, Water Flask)
24: Flask of Fruit Juice (2x Fruit, Water Flask)
102: Vegetable Oil (4x Vegetables, 4x Water Flask)
122: Fetid Essence (Fishing Grubs, Water Flask)
127: Sylvan Dye (Sylvan Berries, Water Flask)
150: Dragon Egg Oil (Dragon Egg, Water Flask)
187: Shar Vahl Essence (Payala Fruit, Water Flask)
235: Time Tea (Cinnamon Sticks, Ethernere Essence, Taelosian Tea Leaves, Water Flask)
282: Iced Tea (Air-Infused Spring Water, Chunk of Ice, Taelosian Tea Leaves)
The Water Flask problem aside, Brewing has something like an actual vendorless skill path, otherwise made entirely of foraged components. This isn't nearly a complete list of viable recipes, but a mere representative path. As an aside, the Iced Mountain Tea is listed as a lower trivial than Iced Tea (despite using a higher-level component and yielding a better result), so that 282 skill point is a little dodgy in my mind. Also, foraging that much Air-Infused Spring Water is almost as impossible as murdering the number of desert madmen this would require! Dragon Egg Oil is on here because, well, we're going to need a lot of it later.
402: Mana Infusion (Ale, Brandy, Mead, 3x Relic Fragments)
This recipe is in the book Enchanting Beverages. Because of the conduct, we can't buy the book, but I believe this one to be optional. We also can't buy the alcohol involved, and we can't make it, either! But low-level alcohol, including all three used here, is on the loot table of some mobs. The "best" place to hunt is probably once again The Warrens. Several kobold types have what passes for high drop rates, and all three alcohol types can drop here. Pirates in Timorous Deep are an alternative. The Fragments are, of course, foraged. And once that's polished off, there's our first vendorless 300. I was a little surprised it was possible (well, "possible", anyway)...
Fletching (190?)
Most people do their fletching in portable kits, but we can neither buy nor make those. Luckily, there are static containers in PoK, Brell's Rest, and Shard's Landing. Unluckily, the list of available recipes is very, very small. We can't make arrows (because we can't make nocks), and we can't make bows, and we can't make, well ... any normal recipes whatsoever. But we can still level!
135: Burin (Molkor Hide, Swordfish tooth, Ulthork Tusks)
Yep, that's the quest item from Shawl 1.7. The exact trivial isn't locked down, but it seems to be 134 or 135, and I guessed 135 is more likely. If you did this, we'd finally know for certain! Have fun farming all those Molkor Hide.
190: Ciodaru's Gift Box Parts (6x Windwillow Branch)
190: Ciodaru's Gift Box (Ciodaru's Gift Box Parts, 4x Large Snake Fang, Petrified Spider Eyes)
And here's our introduction to another tradeskill-based quest. The Glowing Green Silver Earring of Dragoste was an omni-tradeskill quest in Goru'kar Mesa for an earring not remotely worth the effort. If you're doing the quest for real, you can't preloot or precombine items, either, because they're task steps. But you can make the items even if you're not on the quest at all. Some of them are foreclosed to this challenge, but many are not. The Branches and Fangs used in this two-step combine are both dropped in the Mesa; the Petrified Spider Eyes are the result of a Jewelcraft combine (and see the JC section for more).
???: Kyv Bow of Precision (2x Kyv Balm, Kyv Bow, 2x Kyv Cam, Kyv String, Symbol of the Kyv)
So, this. There's a special fletching recipe in the Ikkinz Tri-Fates trial. It produces a zone-bound Bane: Kyv bow. The components are themselves Temporary, and with the trash count reduced after GoD launch and the inability to bank Temporary items on Shadowrest corpses, it's close to impossible to even assemble a full set of drops. If you beat the odds, and drag the materials to one of the static Fletching tables (and if it lets you do the combine there, which isn't assured!), you might be able to use this recipe for skill... if it has a trivial higher than 190. EQTrades gives the trivial as <= 222. ZAM thinks <= 201. A... substantially more dubious site claims it's 199, but I'm not certain, and no one will likely ever know. Barring this recipe, the lack of access to bow parts, arrow parts, or indeed anything that resembles the conventional fletching skill locks us at 190 forever.
Jewelcraft (300)
Did you know there are static Jewelcraft tables? I didn't, but they're in the same zones as the Fletching ones. Which is good, since there's no way to get a portable Jewelcraft container!
17: Silver Malachite Ring (Malachite, Silver Bar)
75: Silver Blue Diamond Ring (Blue Diamond, Silver Bar)
Gems are world drops. Silver Bars are not. Gorge of King Xorbb's muddites have about a 1-2% chance to drop a Silver Bar, which is the only access to the normal leveling progression. Don't worry, though. Trust me when I say anyone attempting this will be spending a lot of time in the Gorge... I've listed the endpoint recipes here, although obviously you can combine any old gem at the appropriate trivial. Probably should bank the Emeralds for later, though.
190: Glowing Green Silver (Lightstone, Section of Mesa Snake Pancreas, Raw Silver)
190: Glowing Green Pendant (Emerald, Glowing Green Sliver)
190: Petrified Spider Eyes (Earthen Ooze Slime, 2x Spider Eye)
Lightstones drop off wisps worldwide. Emeralds are ... Emeralds. The rest of this stuff drops in Goru'kar Mesa, as these are more of the Earring of Dragoste quest recipes. The Petrified Spider Eyes are needed to level Fletching, so would probably be the priority here, although the other option gives you two shots at a skill point per Emerald you have on hand (and requires marginally easier farming).
335: Etherbolt Ring (Blue Diamond, 3x Ethernere Essence, Steel Ingot)
The Essence are foraged. Blue Diamonds are fairly easy to acquire in bulk, but how you're going to get enough worlddrop Steel Ingots to make this a skill path for 110 points is utterly beyond my comprehension. When you've finished that, you can be proud of your second self-sufficient 300 though.
Pottery (300)
Nearly all Pottery combines require a sketch or pattern of some sort. We can't get those. We also can't fire anything that would need fired, because of a lack of access to firing sheets. But so what, we can still play with clay!
21: clay conversions (various sizes of clay, Water Flask)
26: Clay/water mixture (Small Block of Clay, Water Flask)
I mentioned how you'd be spending a lot of time in the Gorge if you tried this, right? Here's another reason why. Muddites: they're made of clay! At least it's a lot more common than the silver. The Clay/water mixture is an obscure subcomine for a Velious-era quest. It lets us eke out another 5 points "just" off clay and Water Flasks, which is good, because...
115: Ethernere Essence Clay (Ethernere Essence, Large Block of Clay, Water Flask)
That escalated quickly. Most of the "specialty" clay types use foraged components like Cosgrove Powder or Dream Dust, but require enchanted clay. Even if we allow multiple characters to cooperate on this project (so long as they all obey the restrictions), we can't get access to enchanted clay, because we can't get access to the scroll to teach Enchant Clay to an Enchanter! This is the sole exception.
190: Fine White Clay (Earthen Ooze Slime, Mesa Recluse Spinneret, 8x Spider Fang)
More Earring of Dragoste quest content, but this one is reprehensible to farm for even by that quest's awful standards.
402: Relic Fragment Figurine (Large Block of Clay, 3x Relic Fragments, Water Flask)
As with the 402 trivial Brewing Recipe, I believe the book (Repurposing the Past) is optional for this combine. I suppose that genocidal slaughter for clay and water will be faster than collecting three uncommon alcohol drops, so this should be a marginally easier 300 than Brewing.
Smithing (190)
Not only do you lack access to any sort of molds, but you can't even get the basic smithing tools. With no File nor Smithy Hammer, the options are grim.
18: Metal Bits (2x Small Piece of Ore, Water Flask)
27: Small Brick of Ore (3x Small Piece of Ore, Water Flask)
31: Sheet Metal (2x Small Brick of Ore, Water Flask)
Ah, Gorge of King Xorbb! The muddites drop less ore than clay, but more ore than silver. You'll have no trouble getting enough Small Pieces of Ore to grind to 31 (after your requisite Water Flask farming butchery, of course!), but unfortunately, that's as far as conventional ore can go.
21: salvaging Fine Steel weapons (Fine Steel weapon, Water Flask)
27: Small Brick of HQ Ore (3x Small Piece of HQ Ore, Water Flask)
37: HQ Sheet Metal (2x Small Brick of HQ Ore, Water Flask)
You can melt down Fine Steel weapons into an assortment of Small Bricks of HQ and Small Pieces of HQ Ore. The trivials overlap with normal ore, but the HQ Sheet Metal is higher. Really, the only reason the normal ore is on the list at all is because you'd be swimming in it after months of butchery in the Gorge. Otherwise, getting as many Small Bricks of HQ Ore as possible is important, because...
190: Envenomed Steel (Earthen Ooze Slime, Recluse Venom Sac, Small Brick of HQ Ore)
The first subcombine of, what else, the Earring of Dragoste smithing subquest is the only one available. Boy, that Earthen Ooze Slime is just the best stuff ever, huh? In any case, you'd better be satisfied with your empire of (worthless) Envenomed Steel, because this is as far as you go. The lack of molds isn't that big a deal, surprisingly, but the inability to access the lowly File is what really holds back further progress in Smithing.
Tailoring (300)
Tailoring has been hated since vanilla for its near-total dependence on farmed components. It's perhaps not surprising, then, that it offers quite a few entirely vendorless recipes. Up with Tailoring! Down with capitalism!
15: Silk Thread (2x Spiderling Silk)
26: Silk Cord (3x Silk Thread)
I remembering farming that little cave in Field of Bone and doing this for real, way back at the start of Kunark. Only this time, you'd need a LOT more Silk Cord.
31: Leather Padding (various LQ animal skins, Silk Thread)
41: Tailored Large Bag (LQ Bear Skin, Silk Cord)
68: Reinforced Medicine Bag (Silk Cord, Thick Grizzly Bear Skin)
The Large Bags are the highest trivial of several similar container recipes. Because using Reinforced Medicine Bags for skill will need an outrageous number of dead bears, you'd like have plenty of LQ Bear Skins to just go with the Large Bag (and turn the rest into Leather Padding until it's trivial), but the other options are there, too.
150: Treated Silk Fibres (Dragon Egg Oil, Silk Cord)
Big jump in trivial, and dependent on a fairly annoying 150 trivial Brewing subcombine. At least it progresses two tradeskills. At this point, you're on the Spiderling Most Wanted list. The alternative to 148 is to grind on the Shawl 1.6 thread, but with four drops spread over several zones (one of which is Lore), that seems even less practical.
202: Muramite Needle (4x Bone Chips, Muramite Residue)
Long-time players will be used to farming vast quantities of Bone Chips. Muramite Residue is about a 5-8% drop off the appropriate mobs in Kod'Taz, making this a surprisingly viable leveling recipe, strangely enough. Make sure to keep one of these, you'll use it later.
222: Phase Spider Thread (2x Phase Spider Silk)
A 16% drop off Dragon Necropolis's Phase Spiders, this is also less onerous that most recipes in this little challenge. This recipe has a minimum skill requirement of 165, however, so the Muramite Needles are mostly unavoidable. One alternative, that also goes to 222, is Shaded Hide armor from Akheva Ruins. That combines the various, extremely rare, pieces of shaded armor with 1-3 Mind worm hide and a Shade Silk Thread. It's interesting that Tailoring has enough vendorless recipes to even use words like "alternate skill path", but the Needles and Phase Spider Thread are seriously about as easy as any part of this would be.
268: Hynid Hair Thread (4x Hynid Hair Strand, Muramite Needle)
Back to Kod'Taz (the hynid in Natimbi won't help). These are like a 40% drop rate, but you'll need a huge pile of them to get 46 skill points off this recipe. And yet, it's not only better than the rest of the skills under this conduct restriction, but better than some recipes that have been legitimately used for leveling Tailoring normally in the past. Tailoring, before the systematic pelt/silk, was truly an awful skill.
335: Black Bear Head (Black Bear Skull, 8x Tuft of Black Bear Fur)
335: Fox Head (Fox Skull, 8x Tuft of Fox Fur)
335: Gray Wolf Head (Gray Wolf Skull, 8x Tuft of Gray Wolf Fur)
335: Grizzly Bear Head (Grizzly Bear Skull, 8x Tuft of Grizzly Bear Fur)
335: Panda Bear Head (Panda Bear Skull, 8x Tuft of Panda Bear Fur)
335: Polar Bear Head (Polar Bear Skull, 8x Tuft of Polar Bear Fur)
335: Rabbit Head (Rabbit Skull, 8x Tuft of Rabbit Fur)
The final combines for the appearance augment use storebought components, but you can easily (well, "easily") finish the push to 300 Tailoring by making animal heads! Pick a zone or two, persecute the wildlife, and forage until the sun dies of old age and your dreams will come true.
Self-sufficient Conduct Challenge: How far can you level tradeskills without any positive interaction with an NPC? Can you hit 2100, in theory?
I've presented these as "skill paths", but please note that this is intended as an intellectual exercise. No one -- and I mean no one -- should attempt this for real. That way lies worse than madness.
Baking (215)
The conduct really hurts here. You can't get Spices. You can't get Jugs of Sauce. You can't get Skewers. But, shockingly, you can still be a Baker!
135: Fish Rolls (Bat Wing, Fresh Fish)
142: Rolled Cutlassfish (Bat Wing, Iceclad Cutlassfish)
Bat Wings drop off bats, as everyone knows. Fresh Fish can be looted from various fish mobs, foraged in Kedge Keep, or fished. Fishing is possible without vendor interaction. Get fishing poles from a variety of sources (kobold fisherman in The Warrens are likely the best choices), and forage for bait. Fish in Iceclad and you'll also get Cutlassfish that can push you another 7 skill.
215: Tae Ew Roll (Bat Wing, Chunk of Tae Ew Meat)
Chunks of Tae Ew Meat are a ~10% drop off many of the lizards in Temple of Cazic-Thule. Have fun with the mass lizard slaughter (and countless more dead bats) to hit 215. And that's as far as we can go, unless I've missed something. Virtually every Baking recipe needs one of the basic vendor-only cooking ingredients.
Brewing (300)
In order to begin our vendorless Brewing challenge, we have to first address a key item in this entire process: the humble Water Flask. We're foreclosed from buying them, and we can't make them ourselves; you can forage Pods of Water, but not the Bottle needed to turn them into Flasks. Luckily, a number of mobs drop them. The best drop rates are from the desert madmen in the Desert of Ro, but a variety of newbie-level mobs around the original world have them on the loot table. Brewing isn't the only tradeskill that will depend on these Water Flasks. Anyone foolish enough to actually attempt this faces a future of slaughtering hundreds of thousands of these mobs for the vast amount of water required. It's sort of an EQ/Mad Max crossover.
21: Flask of Berry Juice (2x Berries, Water Flask)
24: Flask of Fruit Juice (2x Fruit, Water Flask)
102: Vegetable Oil (4x Vegetables, 4x Water Flask)
122: Fetid Essence (Fishing Grubs, Water Flask)
127: Sylvan Dye (Sylvan Berries, Water Flask)
150: Dragon Egg Oil (Dragon Egg, Water Flask)
187: Shar Vahl Essence (Payala Fruit, Water Flask)
235: Time Tea (Cinnamon Sticks, Ethernere Essence, Taelosian Tea Leaves, Water Flask)
282: Iced Tea (Air-Infused Spring Water, Chunk of Ice, Taelosian Tea Leaves)
The Water Flask problem aside, Brewing has something like an actual vendorless skill path, otherwise made entirely of foraged components. This isn't nearly a complete list of viable recipes, but a mere representative path. As an aside, the Iced Mountain Tea is listed as a lower trivial than Iced Tea (despite using a higher-level component and yielding a better result), so that 282 skill point is a little dodgy in my mind. Also, foraging that much Air-Infused Spring Water is almost as impossible as murdering the number of desert madmen this would require! Dragon Egg Oil is on here because, well, we're going to need a lot of it later.
402: Mana Infusion (Ale, Brandy, Mead, 3x Relic Fragments)
This recipe is in the book Enchanting Beverages. Because of the conduct, we can't buy the book, but I believe this one to be optional. We also can't buy the alcohol involved, and we can't make it, either! But low-level alcohol, including all three used here, is on the loot table of some mobs. The "best" place to hunt is probably once again The Warrens. Several kobold types have what passes for high drop rates, and all three alcohol types can drop here. Pirates in Timorous Deep are an alternative. The Fragments are, of course, foraged. And once that's polished off, there's our first vendorless 300. I was a little surprised it was possible (well, "possible", anyway)...
Fletching (190?)
Most people do their fletching in portable kits, but we can neither buy nor make those. Luckily, there are static containers in PoK, Brell's Rest, and Shard's Landing. Unluckily, the list of available recipes is very, very small. We can't make arrows (because we can't make nocks), and we can't make bows, and we can't make, well ... any normal recipes whatsoever. But we can still level!
135: Burin (Molkor Hide, Swordfish tooth, Ulthork Tusks)
Yep, that's the quest item from Shawl 1.7. The exact trivial isn't locked down, but it seems to be 134 or 135, and I guessed 135 is more likely. If you did this, we'd finally know for certain! Have fun farming all those Molkor Hide.
190: Ciodaru's Gift Box Parts (6x Windwillow Branch)
190: Ciodaru's Gift Box (Ciodaru's Gift Box Parts, 4x Large Snake Fang, Petrified Spider Eyes)
And here's our introduction to another tradeskill-based quest. The Glowing Green Silver Earring of Dragoste was an omni-tradeskill quest in Goru'kar Mesa for an earring not remotely worth the effort. If you're doing the quest for real, you can't preloot or precombine items, either, because they're task steps. But you can make the items even if you're not on the quest at all. Some of them are foreclosed to this challenge, but many are not. The Branches and Fangs used in this two-step combine are both dropped in the Mesa; the Petrified Spider Eyes are the result of a Jewelcraft combine (and see the JC section for more).
???: Kyv Bow of Precision (2x Kyv Balm, Kyv Bow, 2x Kyv Cam, Kyv String, Symbol of the Kyv)
So, this. There's a special fletching recipe in the Ikkinz Tri-Fates trial. It produces a zone-bound Bane: Kyv bow. The components are themselves Temporary, and with the trash count reduced after GoD launch and the inability to bank Temporary items on Shadowrest corpses, it's close to impossible to even assemble a full set of drops. If you beat the odds, and drag the materials to one of the static Fletching tables (and if it lets you do the combine there, which isn't assured!), you might be able to use this recipe for skill... if it has a trivial higher than 190. EQTrades gives the trivial as <= 222. ZAM thinks <= 201. A... substantially more dubious site claims it's 199, but I'm not certain, and no one will likely ever know. Barring this recipe, the lack of access to bow parts, arrow parts, or indeed anything that resembles the conventional fletching skill locks us at 190 forever.
Jewelcraft (300)
Did you know there are static Jewelcraft tables? I didn't, but they're in the same zones as the Fletching ones. Which is good, since there's no way to get a portable Jewelcraft container!
17: Silver Malachite Ring (Malachite, Silver Bar)
75: Silver Blue Diamond Ring (Blue Diamond, Silver Bar)
Gems are world drops. Silver Bars are not. Gorge of King Xorbb's muddites have about a 1-2% chance to drop a Silver Bar, which is the only access to the normal leveling progression. Don't worry, though. Trust me when I say anyone attempting this will be spending a lot of time in the Gorge... I've listed the endpoint recipes here, although obviously you can combine any old gem at the appropriate trivial. Probably should bank the Emeralds for later, though.
190: Glowing Green Silver (Lightstone, Section of Mesa Snake Pancreas, Raw Silver)
190: Glowing Green Pendant (Emerald, Glowing Green Sliver)
190: Petrified Spider Eyes (Earthen Ooze Slime, 2x Spider Eye)
Lightstones drop off wisps worldwide. Emeralds are ... Emeralds. The rest of this stuff drops in Goru'kar Mesa, as these are more of the Earring of Dragoste quest recipes. The Petrified Spider Eyes are needed to level Fletching, so would probably be the priority here, although the other option gives you two shots at a skill point per Emerald you have on hand (and requires marginally easier farming).
335: Etherbolt Ring (Blue Diamond, 3x Ethernere Essence, Steel Ingot)
The Essence are foraged. Blue Diamonds are fairly easy to acquire in bulk, but how you're going to get enough worlddrop Steel Ingots to make this a skill path for 110 points is utterly beyond my comprehension. When you've finished that, you can be proud of your second self-sufficient 300 though.
Pottery (300)
Nearly all Pottery combines require a sketch or pattern of some sort. We can't get those. We also can't fire anything that would need fired, because of a lack of access to firing sheets. But so what, we can still play with clay!
21: clay conversions (various sizes of clay, Water Flask)
26: Clay/water mixture (Small Block of Clay, Water Flask)
I mentioned how you'd be spending a lot of time in the Gorge if you tried this, right? Here's another reason why. Muddites: they're made of clay! At least it's a lot more common than the silver. The Clay/water mixture is an obscure subcomine for a Velious-era quest. It lets us eke out another 5 points "just" off clay and Water Flasks, which is good, because...
115: Ethernere Essence Clay (Ethernere Essence, Large Block of Clay, Water Flask)
That escalated quickly. Most of the "specialty" clay types use foraged components like Cosgrove Powder or Dream Dust, but require enchanted clay. Even if we allow multiple characters to cooperate on this project (so long as they all obey the restrictions), we can't get access to enchanted clay, because we can't get access to the scroll to teach Enchant Clay to an Enchanter! This is the sole exception.
190: Fine White Clay (Earthen Ooze Slime, Mesa Recluse Spinneret, 8x Spider Fang)
More Earring of Dragoste quest content, but this one is reprehensible to farm for even by that quest's awful standards.
402: Relic Fragment Figurine (Large Block of Clay, 3x Relic Fragments, Water Flask)
As with the 402 trivial Brewing Recipe, I believe the book (Repurposing the Past) is optional for this combine. I suppose that genocidal slaughter for clay and water will be faster than collecting three uncommon alcohol drops, so this should be a marginally easier 300 than Brewing.
Smithing (190)
Not only do you lack access to any sort of molds, but you can't even get the basic smithing tools. With no File nor Smithy Hammer, the options are grim.
18: Metal Bits (2x Small Piece of Ore, Water Flask)
27: Small Brick of Ore (3x Small Piece of Ore, Water Flask)
31: Sheet Metal (2x Small Brick of Ore, Water Flask)
Ah, Gorge of King Xorbb! The muddites drop less ore than clay, but more ore than silver. You'll have no trouble getting enough Small Pieces of Ore to grind to 31 (after your requisite Water Flask farming butchery, of course!), but unfortunately, that's as far as conventional ore can go.
21: salvaging Fine Steel weapons (Fine Steel weapon, Water Flask)
27: Small Brick of HQ Ore (3x Small Piece of HQ Ore, Water Flask)
37: HQ Sheet Metal (2x Small Brick of HQ Ore, Water Flask)
You can melt down Fine Steel weapons into an assortment of Small Bricks of HQ and Small Pieces of HQ Ore. The trivials overlap with normal ore, but the HQ Sheet Metal is higher. Really, the only reason the normal ore is on the list at all is because you'd be swimming in it after months of butchery in the Gorge. Otherwise, getting as many Small Bricks of HQ Ore as possible is important, because...
190: Envenomed Steel (Earthen Ooze Slime, Recluse Venom Sac, Small Brick of HQ Ore)
The first subcombine of, what else, the Earring of Dragoste smithing subquest is the only one available. Boy, that Earthen Ooze Slime is just the best stuff ever, huh? In any case, you'd better be satisfied with your empire of (worthless) Envenomed Steel, because this is as far as you go. The lack of molds isn't that big a deal, surprisingly, but the inability to access the lowly File is what really holds back further progress in Smithing.
Tailoring (300)
Tailoring has been hated since vanilla for its near-total dependence on farmed components. It's perhaps not surprising, then, that it offers quite a few entirely vendorless recipes. Up with Tailoring! Down with capitalism!
15: Silk Thread (2x Spiderling Silk)
26: Silk Cord (3x Silk Thread)
I remembering farming that little cave in Field of Bone and doing this for real, way back at the start of Kunark. Only this time, you'd need a LOT more Silk Cord.
31: Leather Padding (various LQ animal skins, Silk Thread)
41: Tailored Large Bag (LQ Bear Skin, Silk Cord)
68: Reinforced Medicine Bag (Silk Cord, Thick Grizzly Bear Skin)
The Large Bags are the highest trivial of several similar container recipes. Because using Reinforced Medicine Bags for skill will need an outrageous number of dead bears, you'd like have plenty of LQ Bear Skins to just go with the Large Bag (and turn the rest into Leather Padding until it's trivial), but the other options are there, too.
150: Treated Silk Fibres (Dragon Egg Oil, Silk Cord)
Big jump in trivial, and dependent on a fairly annoying 150 trivial Brewing subcombine. At least it progresses two tradeskills. At this point, you're on the Spiderling Most Wanted list. The alternative to 148 is to grind on the Shawl 1.6 thread, but with four drops spread over several zones (one of which is Lore), that seems even less practical.
202: Muramite Needle (4x Bone Chips, Muramite Residue)
Long-time players will be used to farming vast quantities of Bone Chips. Muramite Residue is about a 5-8% drop off the appropriate mobs in Kod'Taz, making this a surprisingly viable leveling recipe, strangely enough. Make sure to keep one of these, you'll use it later.
222: Phase Spider Thread (2x Phase Spider Silk)
A 16% drop off Dragon Necropolis's Phase Spiders, this is also less onerous that most recipes in this little challenge. This recipe has a minimum skill requirement of 165, however, so the Muramite Needles are mostly unavoidable. One alternative, that also goes to 222, is Shaded Hide armor from Akheva Ruins. That combines the various, extremely rare, pieces of shaded armor with 1-3 Mind worm hide and a Shade Silk Thread. It's interesting that Tailoring has enough vendorless recipes to even use words like "alternate skill path", but the Needles and Phase Spider Thread are seriously about as easy as any part of this would be.
268: Hynid Hair Thread (4x Hynid Hair Strand, Muramite Needle)
Back to Kod'Taz (the hynid in Natimbi won't help). These are like a 40% drop rate, but you'll need a huge pile of them to get 46 skill points off this recipe. And yet, it's not only better than the rest of the skills under this conduct restriction, but better than some recipes that have been legitimately used for leveling Tailoring normally in the past. Tailoring, before the systematic pelt/silk, was truly an awful skill.
335: Black Bear Head (Black Bear Skull, 8x Tuft of Black Bear Fur)
335: Fox Head (Fox Skull, 8x Tuft of Fox Fur)
335: Gray Wolf Head (Gray Wolf Skull, 8x Tuft of Gray Wolf Fur)
335: Grizzly Bear Head (Grizzly Bear Skull, 8x Tuft of Grizzly Bear Fur)
335: Panda Bear Head (Panda Bear Skull, 8x Tuft of Panda Bear Fur)
335: Polar Bear Head (Polar Bear Skull, 8x Tuft of Polar Bear Fur)
335: Rabbit Head (Rabbit Skull, 8x Tuft of Rabbit Fur)
The final combines for the appearance augment use storebought components, but you can easily (well, "easily") finish the push to 300 Tailoring by making animal heads! Pick a zone or two, persecute the wildlife, and forage until the sun dies of old age and your dreams will come true.
but I think the game might be shut down before you could ever obtain enough to beat the RNG.
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