Poll, which trade skill?

[gnoff]

Ok, im a gnome enchanter, and i want to do a bunch of different trade skills, but i dont know which one i want to work on first, Baking
Brewing
and Tinkering
tinkering sounds expensive, but fun, and profitable, but brewing and baking sound cheaper, so which one do you think is best? thx in advnc for ur replys

[Tinile]

dabble in all and find what you enjoy, afterall, it is supposed to be fun.

[Sanna]

I agree, do what you like. A tradeskill you don't like will turn into one you hate intensely, but feel chained to.

I wish I had a gnome enchanter, so I will say this as though I were playing one. Keep in mind this is merely my one opinion; DO WHAT YOU WANT. ^_^.


I would definately recommend leveling up to get the Enchant Metal spells and work on JC. They say that it's easy enough to nearly break even, because the finished products that are of enchanted metal sell back for a bit more coin, plus you may be able to make a smallish profit off of selling your products to other low players, especially with HP and mana rings.

Also, invest in the Mana spells (cloudy, crystillize, etc) as you reach them; other tradeskillers need those components and most are willing to pay a reasonably decent amount.


When you have the levels (isn't tinkering level restricted?), start working on Tinkering. Yes, it's a bit of a money sink, but nearly all tradeskills are. Keep tinkering maxxed with each level, and when you get it high enough, you can make nifty things like Geerlocks and Corking Devices, and other tradeskillers need those.


Take up either Baking or Brewing; the components are easy enough to find in most cases (esp brewing), and if you find you are disliking anything about it, do NOT take up Smithing and Tailoring.

but most of all, do what is fun.

cheers!

-- Sanna

[caena]

Tinkering is level-restricted in that you can't raise skill until you reach level 16. Beyond that, there is no restriction (save the inherent pocketbook one, and of course the gnome one).

I'm a gnome enchanter, and have Baking, Brewing, and Tinkering all over 200. Brewing's at effective GM; Baking and Tinkering climbing slowly but surely. I like 'em all. JC is at zero and gonna stay that way (until I can't resist the shawl anymore).

Caena Trimalchionis
56 Enchanter
Divine Comedies on Karana

[Yelram]

You are going to lose money on JC until you hit gold unless you spend a LOT of time selling as there is little market for the silver/electrum. You CAN make money enchanting gold/plat and selling back to the vendor if you don't have more than 4% failure rate...ie if you get lucky... and don't start JC until you have a few hundred pp in the bank to burn as it goes fast in the beginning. Also remem, that once you get to around 190s or so that you will need 2k+ pp just to buy enough to do 1 stack of combines.
Otherwise, try them all to see what you like. Of baking and brewing, I prefer baking as less ingredients and I can always use banquet sized 0.1 wt meals and no waiting for a brew barrel.

[Calabar]

I agree with the earlier posts, as I think most people on this board will, that you should pursue whatever trade skill you find the most fun. And if you are like many of us, you’ll find yourself doing most of them before all is said and done. *smiles*

That having been said, I can give you my opinion of the skills you listed. The cheapest skill to raise is brewing. All the items are store bought and are relatively cheap all the way to 248. Unfortunately, most of the items you can make are more fun than useful. Once you reach 248 skill, though you can certainly try this earlier, you can make a few nice stat drinks that can sell on your vendor. But you’ll need a corking device to make them. I have a 250 brewer and I like the skill, but I keep hoping Sony adds more fun non-alcoholic drinks with extended durations, like you find on many different types of food. That would make the skill so much more fun.

Baking has always been my favorite trade skill. It’s just too fun not to be. There are so many fun things you can make and hand out to people. Holidays are especially fun. You can give out milk and animal cookies on Christmas. And batwing cruncies taste even better on Halloween. And on top of all that, everybody needs so to eat. There are also all kinds of stat foods you can make as you gain skill. Baking is a great trade skill, but its not incredibly fast to gain skill in after 191 when patty melts become trivial. It’s certainly much easier than tailoring or smithing, but it takes a lot more work than brewing. Still, it’s such a fun skill I don’t really mind.

Tinkering has to be the most unique skill in EQ. If you like making strange toys then tinkering is the trade skill for you. If you’ve hit 16th level you can jump in with both feet and start tinkering to your hearts content. With the many new recipes that have been introduced to the game, tinkering is much cheaper to GM than it used to be. But “cheaper” is a relative term. It’s still very expensive. If you’re willing to farm porous mineral blocks till you never want to see an ugly little yellow alien again then you’ll be able to save a lot of coins. But there’s just no way to tinker without a good amount of money. However, it’s a very addictive trade skill and much loved by many gnomes. If you find you enjoy tinkering then it’ll be worth all the time and money you invest in it.

The best trade skill advice I’ve ever read is to practice trade skills because they’re fun, not to make a profit.

Best of luck,

[sir0die]

well, like everyone said, try them all.

if you don't think your gonna enjoy constantly farming stuff, i'd stay away from smithing and tailoring.

As i'm sure you already know, only gnomes can tinker, so play with that one a bit. As an enchanter, you have class benefiets with JC that folks already mentioned.

i'd recommend working all of them to around 120-130, relatively easy and cheap without massive farming, then pick which ones ya like and advance those.

brewing is one of the easy ones to get up, most of the stuff is vendor sold, you can get to 121 with spending maybe 5p by doing a 2 item combine (fishing grubs and flasks of water). 6-8 stacks of each should about do it. If ya do some research, you can work all the way to 248 without farming anything (except maybe a cyclops skull, but can buy that in bazaar for under 20p)
if you watch you factions and do some research, you can do a bunch of combines while standing in the shops that sell all the stuff for that combine.(you can do Mino brews in halas, and only have to move 1 step to get to both vendors and brewbarrel)

Baking is fun, it's always nice to be able to make your own stat food. It's also fun to passout unique stuff to guild members before a raid. but definately get your baking up high enough to be able to make fishrolls.

Smithing, pain in the but, tons of farming, exspensive, but gives ya good feeling to occationally visit newbie zones and give away some of the armor you've made.

tailoring, pretty much the same as smithing.

one thing to expect, if you tradeskill in all the skills, you'll be broke most of the time. There is not too much profit in the tradeskills, except for high end stuff, so if you aren't 65 and fighting in upper teir planes, don't expect to make a killing on the market.

another thing, if you research the main page recipies, you'll notice that you can probably use a good 75% of the drops that you formerly let rot or vendor foddered.

being a tradeskiller kinda turns ya into a scavanger. I don't know how many times i've run thru newbie zones and check dead spiderlings to see if the newbs left the silk on them. or the pelts. heck, even a ruined pelt can be used by barbarian tailors. I've sat outside hals with a bunch of patterns and sent out /ooc attention all you naked newbies, bring me your ruined pelts and i'll make ya armor at halas ramp. You can feel the excitement in their words as they hand you 1 pelt in the hopes of getting their first piece of armor. heck, the patterns are mere copper. but their thanks are worth more than plat.

[gnoff]

thx for all your advice, i decided to go with baking, as im not that rich, and i enjoy it in real life too, thx for all your comments, theve been a real help