DE smith & WE Rng - just starting, component hunting adv

[Malleable]

OK,
Ive returned to EQ after a couple yrs.
Ive started a DE Enchanter who I plan on making a smith, and a Woodelf Ranger that will do some tailoring/fletching.

Since Im just starting out I figure I might as well do all my leveling hunting components.

Anyone have any general advice on what to hunt, at what level and where?
I know I need elfblood, so bandit camp in LFD and GFD at around 9-15.
I need essense of shadows, so Shadowmen at an appropriate level.
Runes and words for the celestial essense.
Forage for Oak Bark in Kithincore and maybe Warsilk Woods.
Forage for Morning Dew in LFD and GFD.

For tailoring I need to raise skill on combining spiderling and spider silks? So maybe hunt spiders? Any REALLY NICE spots you guys recommend?
My other thought is hunting lions in Karana and try to get as many high quality pelts and skins as possible.

I know this is all pretty general, but since Ive just started I might as well hunt in ways that will help myself out later.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mal

[Zeralenn]

Send me an email at zeralennmanc@yahoo.com and I'll send you a copy of the smithing guide, The Economical Smith. It will cover most of your smithing questions.

Elf blood - best place for that now is Gunthak, which is a mid-30s/40s camp. You can also find it for sale quite commonly now for pretty cheap. The bandits and the sisters on OOT are still okay but the drop rates are low. If you are doing a kill-two-birds strategy then sure, but realize those are not your best options.

Shadowed men are best done at higher levels -- preferably when all are green and you can single pull. Otherwise they can add like a mother. I was killed by a mob of green shadowed men when I was in my low 50s. Accidents happen. Watch vendors because you will occasionally find people who sell them back, particularly near the inns near the WC camp with people hunting for the shadowed rapier.

Don't hunt for runes and words for celestial essence. You can store-buy everything for that in PoK. There is a poison vendor near the fish pond who sells Scent of Marr, right near the vendor who sells the celestial solvent. Just buy some stacks and crank them out. If you are determined to hunt for words, Lavastorm in your mid-teens -- go hunt lava crawlers. They drop them fairly frequently (however, frankly I tend to park my lowbies in the baby end of Paludal starting around level 8, then move them to bandits around 15-25. The xp is awesome and frankly, xp will serve you better than trying to do targeted hunting at that level).

If you are going to do tailoring, I would suggest foraging for morning dew in LFay because you can simultaneously forage for sylvan berries. Sylvan berries are good for LoY ribbons, which are a decent (though somewhat pricey) skillup option that helps bridge that awkward gap between Wu's and acrylia studded. However, you can also forage for morning dew in Gfay and save cinnamon sticks for making cultural needles, which is a profitable way to get from 122-132 in smithing.

(Of course, as outlined in the Economical Smith, your smith will also need to learn brewing, and either learn some tailoring or have your wood elf make all leather padding. With the shared bank slots that is much easier than it used to be).

Spiderling silks - Innothule swamp (don't take your DE enchanter there -- the frogs will kill him). You can also sometimes vendor mine these in Gukta. Spider silks -- some recommend Upper Guk but I have found the best drops personally in East Karana. Those are a bit higher level than your traditional spiders but they will drop up to 6 silks at a time. Watch out for griffons and occasional giants/clops.

Read these boards and read other people's posts on various subjects.

...Zera

[Morani]

Adding to what Zeralenn added (and DO taker her up on that smithing guide, its the most professional, complete, and comprehensive tradeskill guide I've ever seen)...

Tailoring:
Solinear and I give two (slightly) different skill paths in this thread. Both focus on being inexpensive but my version is more focused on that and is easier with lower level characters (Solinear focuses a little more on simplicity). Ultimately, in tailoring, you will likely end up doing Wu armor. For that, you'll want someone who can brew to make the ~1000 heady kialos you will go though. It'll also take some plat since the vials of viscous mana take an enchanter to make and cost nearly 5.5 plat each for materials (store bought). After that, it's what ever you can get a hold of. Farming (either direct from the source or from merchants) acrylia, arctic wyrvern hides, etc can sometimes be found on merchants but you'll need to be near 40th level to solo farm them from source effectively. (Decide what routes you'd like to take and then look into what you need to farm.) There are a number of threads talking about tailoring AFTER Wu is all trivial, a quick glance at the Tailoring section of the board will come up with MANY different ideas and opinions.
Acrylia can be found in a number of Luclin zones but the Acrylia Caverns are about as good as it gets for farming (level 40-45 minimum).

Fletching: (What got me suckered into tradeskills with in the first 2 weeks of my starting EQ)
I give a quick guide in this thread to fletching up to 202. It's pretty close to the same thing posted nearly everywhere as there aren't many options. Since it's my own, OBVIOUSLY I think its better. Some people talk about skilling-up on Trueshot bows, I don't suggest it since it's VERY tedious to farm the micro servos for them but if you do them, you can go to 235. After 202, fletching gets VERY expensive or VERY time consuming. The expensive but quick way is to make bows or Cultural Arrows. The slow but less expensive way is to farm more acrylia to make condensed substance arrows. HOWEVER, you need acrylia for the tailoring (bits) AND for fletching (small bricks) then… OUCH!
See above for Acrylia. Where to farm Condensed Substance (flame, ice, or shadow) can be found on this page but someone else might be able to give input about whether one zone is better than another for farming.
Forage for Branches of Sylvan Oak (do not stack) in Eastern Wastes and Wakening Lands for W.E. Cultural Bows.

Brewing: (support for Smithing and Tailoring)
Forage CONSTANTLY with the ranger and save your pods of water, fruit, berries, veggies, and grubs for the following combines in a brew barrel:
4 pods of water = 1 flask of water (triv = 21)
1 fruit + 1 flask of water = 1 fruit juice (triv = 24) mix this with the pods and water and you'll be done in less than 35 combines.
1 fruit + 1 veggie, +1 flask water + 1 bottle = 1 Khalish (triv = 31)
1 hops + 1 royal jelly + 1 water + 1 cask = 1 Honey mead (triv = 40) jelly is player farmed/sold to merchants in Gfay.
1 barley + 1 hops + 1 water + 1 cask = 1 Short ale (triv = 51)
1 "grapes" + 1 flask water + fresh fish + 1 bottle = 3 Fish wine (triv = 62)
4 gypsy wine + 1 cask (failure returns 4 bottles and a cask) = 1 Gypsy porter (triv = 68 )
1 "grapes" + 1 wine yeast + 1 fruit + 1 bottle = 1 White wine (triv = 82)
1 "grapes" + 1 wine yeast + 1 berry + 1 bottle = 1 Red wine (triv = 95)
1 veggie + 1 flask water = 1 Vegetable oil (triv = 102)
1 fishing grub + 1 flask water = 1 Fetid essence (triv = 122)
2 short beers + 1 water + 1 veggie + 1 bottle = 1 Vodka (triv = 135) Save success for next step.
2 vodka + 1 water + 1 fishing bait + 1 cask = 3 Hulgarsh (triv = 155)
1 veggie + 1 water + 1 short beer + 1 shot glass = 2 Ginesh (triv = 168)

You don't have to follow that step by step but I think you'll have less frustration if you do AND there will be more variety in what you are doing. (There is a strong argument that you skill-up with few combines if you take small steps rather than large ones.) At 168 you could move on to Feydwer Shakers to 188 and Minotaur Hero's brew to 200 (or more) if you wanted to but 168 should be high enough that everything you want for other tradeskills will have a high success rate.

Pottery: (support for smithing)
To get to where you need to for smithing, there are no farmed ingredients that are worth it so just save a hundred or so plat to run through it. (Small, Medium, then Large Clay Jars followed by Small then Medium Bowls.) For me, not firing the unfinished items was well worth any potential money I loose in not selling them back since each item is a container after firing and thus won't fit in another container. I chose to loose a little plat for less hassle.

[Malleable]

Hmmm, given all the stuff it seems to take to get tradeskills up, I think I will wait a bit on working on them.
The only tradeskill ive ever done was jewelcrafting. I wasnt too hard and really only took money and time.
Ill keep foraging and hunting for items I need. If once I get a decent amount of money (since Ive just restarted after yrs - and have nothing), Ill try taking up some tradeskills, but for now I think Ill just stick to leveling in areas where I can get most of what I need.
Thanks again guys,
Mal

[Zeralenn]

Yeah, if all you have done is JC, then that can lull you into a false sense of security. Most tradeskills require a LOT of hunting, foraging, and gathering of raw materials -- not just sessions of handing plat to jewelry supply vendors and maybe engaging in some enchanting.

Tradeskills are also expensive to varying degrees. I'd strongly suggest getting levels before bothering.

...Zera

[Zyrtryx Conjureblade]

As someone who farms spiderling silks (I either sell it in the Bazaar or give it to my tailoring alt, a Druid, and use it to make Leather Padding to sell) I'll you what I tell anyone who asks about spiderling silks and has PoP or a friend who can port them around:

Before going to farm them, go take a non-evil character and check the vendors in Everfrost near the zone in from Halas (and maybe even check IN Halas) then go visit Murissa Sandwhisper in North Ro. Murissa is on Derv faction, so don't hunt Dervs with your Ranger if you're going to use him or her for Tailoring.

You can check the inn in North Ro, too, but don't bother with the two female Barbarian vendors at the fishing huts.