How many stick with just one tradeskill?

[Cigarskunk]

So you wanted to GM tradeskill [blank] and really didn't have any interest in any of the others, nor did you have the ambition or desire to do any of the tradeskill oriented quests out there.

So you focus sololy on the tradeskill you wanted to GM and only do the minimum amount of skilling in the related tradeskills that you HAVE to deal with to GM your chosen craft.

But then that need/desire to work the others, if just to get them over 100 kicks in.

Then it gets worse and you find yourself desciding to try to get the others to 200.

Finally, the desire to claim your badge in the 1750 club kicks in and you're now dumping AA points into your tradeskills.

So how many of you have been able to resist the siren call of the other tradeskills?

If you haven't, were has your strength held you at -

1) just even out the ones you had to work with to 100 (or 150 or whatever your magic number is)
2) bring all the others up to 100 (or 150 or whatever your magic number is)
3) bring them all up to 200
4) I'm going for 1750 membership
5) I'm researving space in my bank for a GM trophy from every tradeskill

[Gorgin]

I originally started as just a Brewer for the coldain ring quest, at the time I couldn't even make the blanket myself(had to have it MQed) and I had to have someone MQ the skinning knife also. After getting to ring 9 I sold Avalanche Ales to others since noone on the server seemed to make them. Around when they added the 8th Coldain Shawl quest a friend finally made me cave in and do the required tradeskills for the shawl quest which resulted in most of my tradeskills ending in the 150-175 range. I stayed there til PoP was released at which point I had joined a raiding guild on my server, a member of FoH mentioned the Aid Grimel smithing quest(or so I thought at the time) so I GMed smithing for the quest to see what the 2nd step was(brewing). After step 2 I still didn't know someone who was a 250 Brewer and Smither so I continued to 250 tradeskills for the Aid Grimel and ended up as a 1750. Once I saw Khoren(I think) with all 7 tradeskill trophys I decided to add those to my collection also and am currently 3(I think) away from having the full set.

[Balkin]

I started tailoring...

Then had to make boning and studs...

Then had to make heady kiola's.

I thought brewing was cool, so why not eh?

Then someone told me I could get baking to 142 quickly and easily. So I did...

Then I started doing trades on OTHER charcters!

Now I have 5 master brewers/bakers/potters, and 3 master blacksmiths, and 3 master tailors, and what the hell is wrong with me!

I've only GM'd (250) one skill on one character, but have another character at 201 smithing, and most of my character have at least 3 skills over 100.

Once ya start, ya can't stop!

[Heartsong_Steelsoul]

I started off as a brewer and fletcher. As you may have noticed, I'm a warrior. Tired of my skill up rate with the 130 wisdom I could get on a good day, I'm currently working on smithing, even if I'm not too incredibly high yet. Much nicer since I can get a 243 str with one buff and the equipment I've collected....

But no desire to GM everything. That's my husband...

Heartsong

[ChaseFV]

It's a slippery slope...

Well, like many of the other posters here, I started branching out in tradeskills to achieve my first. I had originally intended to GM fletching, but Wood Elven cultural fletching destroyed that dream for me, so I decided that as a half-elf, my best bet would be a tradeskill with no cultural advantage, and one that gave a significant advantage to foragers. I settled on brewing, as at the time, there were already a pair of GM bakers on FV. As I brewed, I ended up working my fishing, baking and pottery up pretty far, and as I had already pushed my fletching up near 200, I hated seeing other skills lag too far behind, so up came everything to 100, and I'm now in the midst of pushing for 1450, where I intend to hold for quite some time, before eventually caving in to my desire to join the 1750 club. So in answer to your question, CS, I have zero willpower, and have not been able to hold myself back. The only things keeping me out of 1750 right now are cash and level, but I'll get there eventually.

Cheers,

[Calabar]

My trade skills addictions started when I played UO. Baking was extremely limited in that game, especially when you realize that characters didn’t have to eat and there was no such thing as stat food, but it was fun nonetheless. And even though all characters use the exact same male or female model, I used a mask and role-played a goblin chef. Playing that character was some of the best fun I had in UO. So when I came to EQ my first character took up baking.

I was blown away by all the fun things we can bake in this game. It was such fun making things like eatable goo. And to this day batwing crunchies are one of my all time favorite foods. And since baking was such fun I naturally started looking at other trade skills. I quickly got my smithing up to 111 from toolboxes and such and then started tailoring. Since I was only about level 10, and very much a newbie, tailoring proved very frustrating. So after hitting around 50 or so I started brewing. Then I heard about pottery being easy and took it to over 100 in about 20 minutes. EQ has changed a lot over the last couple of years. I like a lot of the changes, but I still look back fondly upon those early days of discovery.

Now I have four characters I don’t ever plan to delete and all of them have trade skill experience. They each have at least 122 brewing, 191 baking, 148 pottery, 122 smithing and 115 tailoring. My druid has 226 baking, my ranger has 202 fletching, my shaman had 250 brewing and my gnome necromancer has 108 tinkering. What I’d like to do is have all the trade skills on all my characters be 200, plus whatever they choose to GM. And some day I would like my shaman to have 250 in all trade skills, but I doubt that will happen for a very long time.

Sadly, even the characters I don’t necessarily plan to keep get trained in baking and brewing if nothing else. As an example, I created a froggie paladin just to play around with. I doubt I’ll ever play him past level twenty. But as he was hopping around Misty Thicket, beating on beetles and wolves, he happened to mistake a bixie for a fly and swallowed one. He found it so delicious he started hunting more of the tasty little critters. At level five he stumbled upon the queen’s lair and barely survived the encounter by running to the guards with his tail tucked between his legs, figuratively speaking. So now he hunts bixies for both food and revenge. And he’s naturally going to have to learn all the best ways too cook up the nasty little pests.

Trade skills add so much to this game I can’t imagine playing it without them.

[Woodeckt]

I started Trades on my Ranger Half-Elf when I was a guild leader. It was a requirement to master one tradeskill to become an officer. I have mastered pottery, bakeing, fletching, and smithing with this character.

I then when the guild broke up started playing my Druid more as my wife was not playing much. I count my Druid as my main now and he started going to GM tailoring. I then caught the bug and pushed all my skills up in to the high 100's because I decided to go for the Shawl. I am now shooting for 1750 but not sure if I will make it I have a couple more points in Tailoring and Baking to finish those off and have JC at 200 waiting on AA points but I am not sure if the wrist will hold out for Smithing.

[Zeralenn]

I started out being mostly interested in blacksmithing, but of course had to develop brewing, tailoring, pottery, and jewelcraft to support that habit. I got into some baking thinking I'd do the Prayer Shawl quest (then decided against it -- not as useful for a SK as other things I could do). I've toyed with the 1750 club but smithing is still my major focus. I probably will at least get blacksmithing over 200 and do the others to 200, just because. (Actually my JC is now my highest skill, considering it's so easy to do).

I tend to put other GM aspirations on my alts. My halfling druid is going to become a GM tailor, because of the halfling cultural. My cleric is going to be my GM brewer. One of the other ones will probably do GM baking.

...Zera

[Moonlilly]

5

[shinreineko]

It started with just baking for me, then I spread out into pretty much every other tradeskill, and I do plan to spend some AA's and GM as many as I can, hopfully 1950 someday (alchemy).

[Myriad4Life]

The call of the tradesman.........A long road has been through the cycles of life but the call still draws me from the shadows and into the workshop.

When I first started my first life in the world of Norrath, I was but a humble monk looking to feed myself with more than Rations. So, I sought guidance from a Master Chef who took me under his wing and taught me the craft.

Afterwards, my curiosity made me explore more of the workshops in Norrath to see the pleasures of Brewing and the like. That day, I was forever doomed to be a master tradesman. This was made worse after my rebirth into a new life and a new server. A guild requested my presence as a bodyguard for the spellcasters. When my spellcaster left to join the Void, I felt I had nothing left to offer my guild so I took up the trades. Now, every life I live, I try to become a grandmaster in all the trades I may find so as to better serve my comrades and be more than a spellcaster or a guardian. In my current incarnations, I will have all of my trophies and I shall see 2000 (an unusually serious gnome I am. Many people find that an oddity itself until they see my Vah Shir comrade show her cudgel and her wolf. Than they leave me in my shop to create and invent new wonder and old favorites for those who need it and for those who want it.)

I am a tradesman forever. May the gods take this unworthy soul and place him among those masters like the Denmother and her folk one precious day.

Good day to all and may the blessings you deserve come to you
::bows and fade back into the ghostly ether from whence he came::

[Chenier]

I still hear that siren call and I've been retired for a month - why do you think I'm still here almost everyday? /whimper

Add on top of that the fact that I'm not guilded so no raiding, I'm able to farm just about anywhere due my lvl, class, aa's and gear, I have a second account for 24/7 bazaar seller, I have a hefty nest egg to build on and skills to keep replenishing the cash in flow, and I'm flagged for all of PoP save Time (of course) so I have the ability to try the Aid Grimel quest.

Sheer will power - do not login.

I achieved my primary, secondary and thirdary (I can't spell that word!) goals with tradeskills: get all skills to 200 (well, smithing is close), get tailoring trophy, and get 250 in tailoring.

[Morani]

In short answer; no one that posts to this board. (at least not if you count alts too)

[Alyxia]

Very interesting post, heh.

When I was a wee lil lass back in the summer of 1999, I was hunting with this dark elf, who asked me if I baked. She told me I could skillup baking, and make a lil profit at it (it has since been changed). And coming from a previous game where I was totally into tradeskills, this intrigued me. So as soon as I started in baking, I was hooked Very soon, I had a full set of utensils in my bank vault, lol. Then I wanted to try every other tradeskill there was So I did, lol. Got them all to 100+, some to 150ish, and some even close to 200. But then I got sucked into the level grind, to catch up with my friends.

So when there was the option to get to 250 in one skill, I chose Tailoring, as a wood elf, because there were some nice things to make,and well, tailoring was one of the harder skills.

Before I hit it, I heard rumors of going to 250 in more than one skill, and when it finally came in, I kept telling my friends "yeah, it's cool, but 3 AAs per level is kinda costly." But I KNEW, in the back of my mind, that I wouldn't rest til I got em all, and I did

Having support skills for my main skill (tailoring) never worried me, because I already had all the support skills I needed, even before I needed them.

I only made the Tailoring trophy first, but as soon as I hit 1750, I made the other 6 I'm holding my GM Needle in ranged, and until I get my epic, I'm holding the GM Hammer as my weapon

[Calliopeia]

Tradeskills were meant for packrats like me

First and foremost, I am an EQ packrat.

When I first started, I saved EVERYTHING. Well, actually, I saved the 6 most important everythings I could find, because I had six bank slots. (I will always <3 Grimbergen for introducing me to the concept of the bank and leading me there in Qeynos.)

I used to window shop at the vendors in Qeynos, and the Jewel Box was my absolute favorite. I didn't even know you could make enchanted jewelry that actually had stats. I just wanted some pretty earrings, so I decided to be a jeweler. I sold off the stacks of snake skins and fangs I had collected and bought a jeweler's kit. It was my pride and joy, even though I didn't have any metal or jewels to combine in it. I met this nice paladin (or so I thought at the time... I believed him when he told me that he owned a bar in Freeport... /snicker) who bought me some leather pants in exchange for the 2 stacks of snake eggs that I carried. He said he was a baker and had just catered a wedding. Once I knew I could make cake, I started to bake. I needed something to wear with my leather pants, so I tailored my own tattered armor eventually. This was back in the days when my goal was to have something in every armor slot. It didn't matter what that something was, I just wanted every little box to be filled.

I finally saved up enough copper to buy some silver and malachite. When I sucessfully made my first silver malachite ring, I knew I had reached an EQ milestone. I was a JEWELER. Later that day, I ran into my very first dark elf ever. He was standing at the far end of the Qeynos yard and since I had no idea what he was, I approached cautiously. His coat reminded me of something Lestat should wear and I told him so. He liked that a lot and said I had been too kind to an evil necromancer like himself. Since he was hungry, I gave him some of my freshly-baked rat ear pie. He offered me a fine steel weapon and a minotaur horn, and told me I'd be a good bard. I was overwhelmed and so I offered him the only thing of value I owned - the silver malachite ring. He said he'd treasure it always. I didn't see him after that until I was level 21, waiting for a port in West Commons. He remembered me and told me to follow him to the bank. He said he had something that he'd always kept, and showed me the silver malachite ring! We've been friends ever since. I still have that minotaur horn and his necro still has the ring.

After my auspicious tradeskilling start, I've taken up every skill. Mostly to legitimize my packrat tendencies, so I can say, "Oh, I am saving those for skill_01" when my husband calls me an EQ bag lady.