Few at a time vs. hundereds...

[Reflan]

Code to discourage power skilling? Ugh, you mean they would intentionally make you fail to get skill-ups as often if you tradeskilled more than "X" number of minutes and hours?

Talk about diabolical.

[Kytelae]

No kidding, that would be evil.

When I was skilling up on things that included a lot of vendor-bought items, I would often do a couple stacks of whatever at a time. I can't do too much more than that because my hands start to hurt. But now that I'm slogging through high-end tailoring I rarely have more than half-a-dozen combines on me at a time. Sometimes I get a skillup in that, sometimes even more than one, and other times none at all, but I don't worry about it too much. The acrylia stuff I'm making sells at a slow but steady rate, so by doing small quantities I don't end up with too much inventory and I can sink my small profits back into more tradeskilling.

But I'm the prototypical casual player, rarely on for more than an hour or two at a time, and not all that often these days.

[Alyxia]

I think it varies depending on the skill you're working on.

Tailoring - I would slowly horde up stacks upon stacks of silk swatches and store them on a mule, until I had at LEAST 20 stacks of swatches. Then I would go and do all the other subcombines for 20 attempts at a time, since we all know that bank space and time is always at a premium.

Baking - I had space to do 200 attempts in a sitting, since everything stacks, and the only limiting factor is the foraged/farmed components, which I stockpile ahead of time.

Smithing...ugh...what pain. The final components don't stack, so I could only do the subcombines and final combines for 20 attempts at a time. But of course, I do several runs of 20 attempts per evening.

Pottery, I did them in runs of 120 attempts per skilling session, several sessions per evening.

Jewelcraft...until I got bored and tired

Fletching - 20 attempts at a time, since bricks take up a lot of space.

Brewing - 40 attempts at a time, running back and forth to refill on non-stackable components

[Magrath]

Fletching - 20 attempts at a time, since bricks take up a lot of space.

Oh my, you don't immediately turn your bricks into shafts for long-term storage? I'd save up shafts and arrowheads, and never do fewer than 100 combines when I was skilling up. I'm a cheapskate, and I wanted to get as many done as possible before KEI wore off.

But you should have heard my mules groan about the hundreds and hundreds of arrows they had to carry away.

[Alyxia]

Oh my, you don't immediately turn your bricks into shafts for long-term storage?

Hehe...

Well, as a druid, it was just as easy to bind at the Woodie Forge in Kel, cast SoE, drop off the platforms, and head SE to Felwithe to grab bricks, gate, do combines, then rinse and repeat This actually gave my arm a short break, and I got to buff all the newbs with SoW when I saw them in front of Felwithe

I agree with the KEI timer thing though. But since I don't have the PoP abilities yet, I had max 255 wis unbuffed, so I didn't usually need KEI when fletching

[KyrosKrane]

I've tried it both ways, and while I never bothered to analyze the actual skillup rates, I do have a few observations.

Doing long runs is BORING. Sure, you may get more skillups per run than by doing the odd combine here or there, and if it's a storebought skill like basic baking or fletching or JC, then it may even make sense. That does not change the fact that it's boring.

Doing a few combines now and then, however, can be exciting if you look at it the right way: you're playing the lottery. IRL, when you buy a lottery ticket, you don't realistically expect to win the grand prize. You certainly hope you do, but you don't expect it. Thus, when you win, you feel pleasantly surprised. Same with combines. When I do nine combines just because I have the materials handy, I'm buying nine lottery tickets. I don't expect any skillups, but boy does it feel good when I get one -- or more! =)

On a practical level, though, if your goal is simply to max a tradeskill, big runs may be the way to go. If you have a skillup suit that maxes your wis or int, it can take a while to switch into it and out of it. Arranging your inventory to make room for the combines can also be a chore. If you need a KEI, that adds to both your time and your expense. All of these hassles are minimized when you can do 200 combines at one shot instead of 20, or even 2.

Ultimately, it's a matter of personal preferences. I've done both ways at various times, and I'll continue to use both ways as I feel it appropriate.