Question about 7GM earring quest

[elty]

Humm, do you have to have all 7 skill at above 200? Is there some that you can accept at below 200? I am short of AA (only 164 atm) and I want to save on Tanaan AA as much as possible (currently I have 1 level).

Currently, my skill is at follow:
JC: 191
Fletching: 217
Tailor: 197
Smithing: 37
Brewing: 167
Baking: 200
Pottery: 148

How hard and costly is raising those skill? I only have less than 1 million (more like 900k) to play around. and even worse, I don't have a sk or necro or mage or bst or monk or ranger to do all the farming. (cleric probably don't farm very well, and I only have 1 account)

Which step you recommand to have a higher skill? I know that tailor step cost a lot so it is better to have better skill. However what about other step? Are they costly and time consuming?

Finally, how rare is the hope stone? I saw it once in poe althought I am new to EP (thanks missing flag from POI). If it can't be MQ why some people try to sell hope stone MQ? Is it MQable only for planar manual quest?

Many thanks

[tnexus]

With 900k you should be able to buy everything minus enough velium to max Smithing and Tailoring. And that's only because enough won't be for sale. For more infon the Aid Grimel quest, go here.

Tnexus

[Carmaris]

Yes, all skills have to be 220+ to do the quest. So yes, you'll have to sink 18 AA into New Tanaan, no way around it. It's been rough for me (at 120 AA, 18 of those being New Tanaan), but worth it IMHO.

That's far more than enough cash. I've sunk somewhere between 100 - 150k bringing skills up from 8th Shawl levels and my skill levels are: Smithing 222 (221 - 222 came from doing the quest itself), Brewing 250, JC 240, Pottery 220, Tailoring 184, Fletching 240, and Baking 219. Fletching was the most expensive by far (about 60k to go from 202 - 240) with Smithing being a distant second--though I did farm all my own velium. I've also done all my own foraging (Ashen dye for ribbons, but the plat ribbons themselves still hurt the bank account and Justice Fruits for baking).

The big one to have maxxed (IMHO) is fletching. The components in PoA are just really really hard to come by and very expensive in the bazaar. Tailoring would be a close second, but I'll probably just be taking it to 220 and crossing my fingers--I can get a group up to farm these components far easier than I can get a couple groups to go to PoA.

Hope Stone cannot be MQ'd for quest, can only be MQ'd for the planar manual quest. Far as I know, it has no other use.

[Crystara]

Air bow is a much better success rate then the robe step. Air really isn't a one group farmable zone either, spiders are few and far between outside dust ring and not worth doing on your own, really best to have a guild help out. Once your doing dust however those little spiders drop silk by the fist full, and then the staves become hard to get.

Fire componants are a bit better, with just saps being hard to come by. However needing 3 per combine sucks and the success rate is terrible generally, at 250 skill I failed it 3 times on my first earring and twice on my second, which is a whole lot of sap down the drain, fortunately for me my alt is a Fire flagged 65 wizard so I can just farm more myself, most are not so lucky.

Fletching is indeed the most expensive to max if you do your own farming, but even that can be brought down in price if you farm acrylia for arrowheads. With 900k however I would just go ahead and buy whatever you can in the bazaar and get as far as you can on that before you resort to farming. The only skill I personally farmed for was smithing, sickles are insanely stupid to make being unstackable so I decided on Shadowscream for that.
I beleive I spent roughly a million plat to max my skills and that was taking the fast expensive way for whatever I possibly could.

[casala]

PoAir drops are not that hard to come by at all. Get 2 groups and go kill some of the minis that spawn. Nice drops plus you can pick up a boatload of tradeskill items on the way. For example, one small run to a named yielded this:

Multifaceted Eye
Ivory Stormrider Canine x 2
Chunk of Wind Metal x 10
Air Mephit Blood x 9
Featherwood Bow Staff x 2
Air Mephit Skins x 6
Alabaster Beak

Not too bad. From the above items you can easily make a cloudy ring of pneumatic force, totem of xegony and have most of what you need to make the bow. Also, contrary to popular belief the spider silks aren't that hard to come by either.

Realize, this wasn't even farming the items-- just a clearing to get to a named. To me, the hopestone seems to be the most difficult part-- I have only seen that drop once.

Any idea on the best place to get it?

[Aluaeia]

I got my hope stone off of Blazzax the Omnifiend in fire (still working on the skills and aa though).

Also seen them drop (rarely) at tables. I think they're random off any red con (possibly any over 65?) in elementals.

[Saruton]

No, not only red cons. They are possible drops of ANY mob on the planes. If have seen them drop from crocs in Earth, from yellow Spiders in Fire and multiple mobs on raids.