Costs

[rarrazz]

I have always wondered about how much it will cost to get jewelcraft up to 300. I'm currently sitting at 200 until i get the aa's to go any further.. but would like to know what costs to 300 will be, once I can.

[DJPhil]

Hmm

Most people estimating cost for a tradeskill run use the advanced calculator on the main eqtraders page . . .

http://www.eqtraders.com/calculators...r=130080000000

Add to that Secone's excellent tradeskill guide . . .

http://mboards.eqtraders.com/eq/showthread.php?t=25961

. . . and it becomes possible to estimate the cost of a complete tradeskill if necessary.

Now you're looking at adding up the totals from over twenty different recipes whether you go with all merchant bought recipes or drop only gems. While it's possible that someone has numbers from their own private experience, they may not apply well to you, as they may have had higher stat caps/mastery/mod etc. For anyone without numbers handy, it'd be a lot of work to add all those up.

If you're looking for a much more general ballpark figure, as in is it more like 25k or 250k etc., that's totally understandable, but there are some caveats. Those who make gem studded chains tend to use them to skill up tailoring, where others find it easier to merchant surf diamonds for their skillups. Mastery can play a role if you skip large enough gaps, though it's difficult to do with JC because there are many tightly triv'ed recipes.

As I've never done JC past 200 myself, I'm no authority, but from what I've gleaned here I don't think I'd go into JC as a 365wis Rogue until I had about 80k to shell out, and I'd only expect to *maybe* get me to 282. At that point I'd be doing some hard looking at chains and tailoring. I'm not blessed with the coordination to bot or a baz wizard, so money's always somewhat tight.

As a footnote, with all the high priced gems and metal flying around in JC, salvage really shines. If you haven't got salvage 3 yet I'd seriously consider it.

[Pootle]

It was such a long time ago but I think my 200-250 cost me just under 10k.
That was using enchanted metals, as they sell back for more.

Only just started on the 250-300 and havent really been keeping track of costs, sorry.

[Crackity]

Surprisingly, up to a point, jewelcraft is not that expensive. This is basically because you can sell much of what you maake back to a vendor or, if you are patient, in the bazaar. You do need to have a chunk of change to buy the components initially, but you do recover a percentage up to a point.
The problem I have run into is that once you get up to 288 or so, that changes. I can still skill up on diamond/velium, blue diamond/platinum and blue diamond/velium, which sell back well, but everything else (palladium, geode, jacinth, amethyst, even augs) doesn't sell back. Some cost 500p per combine, and sell back for silver (although tribute quite well or will sell eventually in the Bazaar). Also, those components must be found in the bazaar, vendor diving if you are lucky, or by killing).

My main problem now seems to be getting any skill-ups at all. I am currently stuck at 288, with 185 combines to show for it. Just last night, I bought 10 Blue Diamonds at 400p a pop, 10 plat bars at 104p, 10 combines, 10 successes, zero skill-ups. They sell back for 350p. So, that cost me about 5040p - 3500p = 1540p for 10 attempts. On about half of the 185 combines, I get zero back (not counting the "value" of the 740 trib points you get.)

I am thinking about shelving my efforts to skill-up in JC for the time being. I am grinding AAs by charm soloing in HoH each night, and will eventually put some points into AAs that will help skill-ups. At 288, JC Mastery won't help. I am not lvl 70, so I can't get Salvage. The only ones that will help will be ones that raise my Int cap (now at 280). Planar Power, Inate Enlightenment and the various ones that raise Int will help, but I can't see dropping those AAs until I have maxxed out defensive and charming ones (I am currently at 56, and can't see doing the Int ones until I get over 100 -- at 2 or 3 a night, it will be a few weeks).

So, I guess I haven't given you a straight answer, just a description of the path I have, and am still, taking. Good luck to you.

[Bobaten]

While you can't get the third level of salvage until 70, you can get the first level at 60, and the second level at 65. Any salvage is better than no salvage.

[Zolina]

It's been a bit ghastly for me, I'm estimating around 100k-150k to reach 300 JC. The platinum jewelry was only about a 20pp loss per combine, but the velium stuff is a 100pp loss per combine, and by the time you have to do velium or blue diamonds at 287+ skill, it'll take about 50 combines per skill-up on average. 13 * 50 * 100 = 65k. Of course, I'm low on blue diamonds, so I may have to go with gem studded chains instead, a loss of 250pp per combine, 13 * 50 * 250 = 162k.

There aren't many options other options at 287+. I saved all my scale ore from my Creator missions, so I have about two stacks of palladium jewelry. I sell it back in Bazaar, so it's slow to get the money back.

[Queletan]

I was lucky, I did JC before people really realized what blue diamonds were for, so I got alot of them for ~300pp. At that price, your cost is not that terrible, it isn't that great either, but its more managable than the BDs I see going on Bert for 450-600...

Under no conditions at all should you ever combine anything that comes from LDON. As one of the posters before me mentioned, they sell for less than a plat (and that includes the ones that take a platinum bar) I've been playing with the Prestitigidase (sp) because they sell in the bazaar for a reasonable sum, and they're actually cheaper (if you wait) on my server.

Q

[Wyora]

I've been playing with the Prestitigidase (sp) because they sell in the bazaar for a reasonable sum, and they're actually cheaper (if you wait) on my server.

Q

I actually skilled up my trophy with quite a few Prestidigitase combines. Taking the plain prestidigitase and turning it into a round cut is a 362 trivial.

[Zolina]

There's a point where the net loss on platinum or velium blue diamond combines are equal to the net loss of gem studded chains, don't pay more for blue diamonds than that.

I think there's a 20pp loss on platinum blue diamond and a 100pp loss on velium blue diamond based on vendor price for blue diamonds. If you're paying more than 230pp over vendor price for platinum or more than 150pp over vendor price for velium, you'd be better off making gem studded chains. Vendor buy price for blue diamonds is 239pp, so don't pay more than 469pp for platinum blue diamonds, or more than 389pp for velium blue diamonds.

[Elyssanda]

It was such a long time ago but I think my 200-250 cost me just under 10k.
That was using enchanted metals, as they sell back for more.

The enchanted versions no longer sell back for more. just an FYI.. haven't for .. a year? or more..

[Gorse]

The enchanted versions no longer sell back for more. just an FYI.. haven't for .. a year? or more..

Not sure about the enchanted bars themselves, but the last time I checked (admittedly 2-3 months ago) the enchanted jewelry still sells back for more than the jewelry that is not enchanted.


Gorse

[Bobaten]

In the old days, jewelry made with enchanted metal sold back at a slight profit (which would make you more or less break even when you considered the 95% success cap). But 2 years ago Sony lowered the prices of of both the enchanted and the non-enchanted (the rules added for greater success on very trivial combines let macroers profit by doing low level combines with high level skill). However, the enchanted still sell for more than non-enchanted (approximately the old non-enchanted price) but no longer for a profit.