Question about KEI, STR, and Pottry skill-ups.

[Tryon]

I was working on pottery, and combined 80 Opal Encrusted Stiens to go from 209 to 210. /sigh

Wisdom = 275 (no Kei)
Strength = 146
Geerlok Sculpting tool equiped (don't think that helps with skill-ups though)

After venting frustration over quidchat I recieved 2 tells about what could help.

1) Do you Have KEI? I said no, but my wisdom is maxed without. She said that even though Wisdom is maxed, having a Wisdom buff beyond max seems to help skill-ups for some reason. This coming from much tradeskilling with and without KEI buff. Anyone else have experience with this?

2) What's your STR? He said that STR In Addition to WIS helps skill-ups. I always thought Whatever was highest, and STR was added for melee who's WIS and INT is low.

So...

Can anyone tell me is buffing up my STR will increase skill ups with Max Wis? Meaning the 2 work together?
And, has anyone else heard having WIS buff beyond max increasing skill-ups?

Also, I've heard a few people say working on items with higher trivial makes for more skill-ups. Is this so?

Thanks in advance for answering my multi-question post

[Unmei]

#1: Having wisdom above your cap does nothing. Otherwise, what would the point be in raising your cap?

#2: Strength has NOTHING to do with Pottery. Only smithing, and even then only if it's higher than your int an wis.

#3: Trivial levels have nothing to do with skillups either.

Some items MAY or may not have a higher chance of skillups than others, but frankly, I think that's a myth too.

[Mahlig]

Trivial levels may or may not have anything to do with skill ups. My reasoning is that skillups are more likely to occur on a success than on a failure. Therefore, the greater the chance of success, the greater the chance of skill up. This, what Unmei is correct about the trivial level, it does have something to do with skilling up inadvertantly.


** Note: A GM once told me that you were more likely to move up on a success than on a failure. He also advised me to stay within 40 points (though I think this site several times says 50) of trivial. This advice was given to me (as an appeasement) while I was irate (and rightfully so) for failing 60% of my combines of a trivial Heady Kiola (apparently, the developers were unaware of what the word "trivial" means).

[Tryon]

Argg, 40 more combines since previous post with no skill-ups.

I've always been under the assumption that tradeskills had a secondary stat check for combine successes. For Tailoring and Jewelcraft, supposedly a higher dexterity increases success rate. For smithing, highter strength. But since melee classes usually have low INT and WIS, and higher DEX and STR (and complained about it) they decided to let STR and DEX determine skill ups if it was higher than WIS / INT.

Anyway, it's all so **** confusing, and nobody seems to know for sure. So every time I tradeskill, I'm going to MAX my Wisdom, get KEI , Buff my STR. Just because....

[Unmei]

I'm pretty sure that only some tradeskills have secondary stats, and even for those that do, the secondary stat only matters if it's better than your int/wis. Pottery, AFAIK, has no secondary stat.

[Obina]

1) Stay cool. You will get there.
2) Get a Kei. There is a thread on main board saying it will help. It certainly wont hurt, so go for it.
3) Make 60 more. Scroll down your text box so you cannot see the messages. Dont look until you are done all 60. Now look at skill!
4) Rinse and repeat.

Obina
Stuck at 234, but will make 60 more SRES tonight without peeking.

[Delendra]

As a shaman I am able to do all stat buffs. I have found I get better success rates on the ceramic items with AGI maxed. It might just be a fluke but thought I would pass along the info.

[Tinile]

I think your main problem right now is that you're at a hellish level of potting. I swear it took me about 1 million combines to get from 200 to 220. Been easy since then.

[Tryon]

Thanks guys.

I think I'll just grab my favorite High Elf, put on some "Unchained Melody", and blissfully pot until I get some skill ups.

[Calabar]

I feel the reason that there are so many “myths” associated with trade skills is because skill ups can be so incredibly random. Someone will do something different, like get a stat buffed or stop getting one buffed, and suddenly they get more, or less, skill gains. So they take that to mean their change made the difference when in fact it was just being random as usual. Somewhere on these boards is an official post on what does and does not affect trade skills according to Sony. And correct or not that’s about as official as it gets. Your skill gains are affected by either your intelligence or your wisdom, whichever is higher. And a few skills will use the higher of a third stat: notably strength for smithing and dexterity for fletching. But most of the rest of what you hear is just guesswork based upon observing an erratic advancement system.

One popular rumor is that you gain more skill from making items close to your skill level. Is it true? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Does having KEI help skill gain if you have already maxed out your wisdom? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Does buffing every stat you have help with skill gain? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Does equipping fishing grubs in your ammo slot, switching your default language to Elder Dragon while jumping up and down improve skill gain? Perhaps. Perhaps not. The way I look at it is if it’s easy for you to do then why not go for it, it can’t hurt. If your skill progression path allows it, go ahead and make items close to your skill level. If noting else you have more to sell back to the vendor. If you can easily afford KEI you might as well get it. Its not like it’s hard to find. If you can buff your own stats then what the heck. Especially if you donated for KEI. And if you don’t normally keep anything in your ammo slot, it actually is a great place to store fishing grubs.

I can certainly understand your frustration, but try to just go with the flow and you’ll eventually reach your goal. My shaman is currently working on his brewing. His gains were coming reasonably fast until he slammed face first into a brick wall. It took him over 180 combines to go from 192 to 193. But every since then, his skill is currently 233, he’s gained at least one skill point within about every 40 combines and sometimes up to three or four. So don’t try to make sense of skill gains, it’ll only cause frustration and possibly large psychiatric bills.

[Tryon]

/bow

Great post thanks. If there is one thing I noticed in EQ from day one is that everything rare seems to happen in waves rather then a steady 1 out of X amout of occurances.

Take Loot. Ever camp something for hours then get 2 or 3 in a row? Just the other day, I was camping Pure Blood for my LoY spell quest. I solod in CoN for 2 hours, then some guildies joined me and after another hour 2 in a row dropped, and then a 3rd within 5 minutes. In Halls of Testing, we went 2 months without ever seeing a silk robe. Then Bam, we actually has 2 robes on 2 dead mobs lying on the ground.

Skill-ups are the same way, I worked on tailoring at skill of 164 and combined 25 Arctic Wyvern Masks, and about 30 Acrylia Wristbands. No Skill-ups. Then I decide to make some Etched Royal Velium Armor with extra gems from going 8th shawl. I had 5 Velium Hound Furs, I went from 164-167 in tailoring making 5 Soft Fur Paddings. :roll:

So a run of 140 combines with no skill-ups doesn't suprise me, it's just frustrating as hell. What keeps me going is knowing that I'll probably get 3 or 4 skill-ups within 20 combines in the future.

[Reflan]

Log in and log out to reset yourself if things are going badly. At 250 baking I started failing EVERY one of my subcombines for a long stretch while working on misty thicket picnics. All these were very trivial to me, some ridiculously so. A small run is one thing, but 20 IN A ROW?

I've had this kind of thing happen a few times. Just recently failed about a dozen leather paddings in a row, trivial is 31 I think. Logged out and came back and everything was fine.

I've experimented and seen that zoning doesn't seem to help, though some claim it does. Logging out for 5 or 15 minutes does, though. I've come back and suddenly I start getting normal skill ups.

Btw, I've seen a jillion times that those nameds or rares you are camping will often pop two in a row. Now, whenever I am camping something, I always stay after killing it to see if it will pop again. It happens a great deal of the time. Camp something for eight hours -- boom, 2 in 3 minutes.

[Calabar]

I wouldn’t be surprised if your correct about camping out helping if your failing a lot of trivial combines. There are bugs in the game and that’s just something we have to live with. I have a movement bug that crops in every now and then. When I log in and start running, even with SoW on, its like I’m moving in slow motion. I can change camera views and the effect is very obvious. I’ve tried camping to the character selection screen, but that doesn’t help. I have to log completely out of the game. I usually reboot the PC just to be on the safe side. At that point it doesn’t take much longer. When I come back all is well. If I can have a movement bug, why not a trade skill bug? Its just a shame its not as easy to detect.

[Jerod]

My reasoning is that skillups are more likely to occur on a success than on a failure.

I did skillups on solstice robes for tailoring and only had ONE skillup from a successful combine. ALL other skillups were from failures, of course... so I do not think success or failure has little relivance if none at all.

[Tryon]

Finally, a success story

Worked on pottery tonight for the first time since my run of 140 combines with no skill ups. Sitting at 210, I prepared 250 Opal Encrusted Stien combines. To my relief, I shot to 222 skill in under 150 stien combines. I Took 3 stacks of my remaining 7 stacks of laquered opals and essence and attemped 60 White Ceramic Bands to bump my Pottery up to 225. Much Better results then I had expected. My wisdom was maxed at 285 without c3 but I got a c3 anyway because...why not? :P. Str was 160'ish and Dex was 130'ish, but I think we determined that doesn't matter.

I was feeling lucky and tried a GM Pottery trophy, but failed.

I spend a ton of money today, but I was thrilled to get 15 Skill-ups.

Edit: Did 100 more White Ceramic Bands for 5 skill-ups. 230 now