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This forum has been invaluable thus far and last night I completed my 5th shawl and have acquired all the components needed to try for my 6th at a total cost thus far of maybe around 4-5K. To give a little background, Im a 65th level shaman who is not rich by any stretch of the imagination but who was willing to do the farming required to up my tradeskills at a minimum of cost. To give an idea of the amount of time I've spend tradeskilling and farming to get to this point, lets just say that its probably somewhere around 50-60 hours.
The first step was baking. I had no skill in it but this tradeskill was a breeze to raise. Bat wings and fresh fish which I bought in PoK from the fisherman and the poison vendor in the stall on the west end was all I needed to get to 122. I have only decent equipment but buffed with KEI and my Greater Bear form illusion had a 234 WIS for the majority of my combines. I also did bat wing pie to 142 which required dough to be made so I went to Freeport and killed snakes until I had a couple stacks of eggs to work with.
Brewing was cheap and also easy to raise only requiring me to go thru the recommended skillup method in the brewing guide here. I skipped bog juice since I put 21 training points into brewing and did short beer to 21 (kept them), heady kiola's to 46 (kept them and made them in Freeport west), short ale to 51 (made in PoK), fish wine to 62 (made in PoK) and then skipped over Gnomish Spirits to make Ole Tujims Fierce Brew to 135 (best made in Highpass Hold). No farming was done here as all the components were store bought.
With regards to smithing, I pretty much followed the advice in Zeralenn's guide up to my current skill of around 167. This was done in concordance with my tailoring skill. My first stint of spiderling silk farming was done in Feerott by the druid ring and it was slow going in about 3 days worth of farming (6 hrs maybe?) I only got 3-4 stacks of spiderling silks. I did luck out however in one kind person yelling in OOC in PoK about giving away 6 stacks of shadeling silk which I promptly took off his hands and gave him a healthy tip as well. I also spent quite a bit of time in Marus Seru killing rockhoppers for their LQ and rockhopper hides. I used the shadeling silk to convert all of the LQ rockhopper hides into padding and used the greyhopper hides to skillup to 88 in tailoring making greyhopper masks (mask pattern and a greyhopper hide). Im not sure if they have changed the spawn rates since I did this but the first couple times I farmed MS (mid-late 2003), rockhoppers were as numerous as the stonegrabbers are now allowing me to get to 95 tailoring and stashing about 5-6 stacks of leather padding in my bank in a little over 3-4 hours just doing farming. All in all, Zeralenn's guide was invaluable here. I leveled up to skill 167 on the ornate armor which I sold back and have spent maybe 2-3K to get to this point since I farmed the padding. The biggest cost was buying the gold and electrum bars to make the ornate armor.
As I stated earlier, I was able to get my tailoring skill to 95 relatively cheaply on that greyhopper armor since at the time, they were dropping in abundance and I could kill them in a little under 10 seconds a piece (63 or 64 shammy with pet). At this point, it was time to farm pelts so I headed out to E karana to kill the lions there. I found quite a few crag spiders and basically lived here for a week (20 hours maybe) collecting HQ and MQ cat pelts and collecting all the silk I could get my grubby little hands on. The MQ cat pelts were then converted to LQ pelts for more leather padding. I also found a good spot to farm spiderling silk to be used to convert these LQ pelts into padding in L Fay in the NW corner of the zone in the brownie camp. I parked the shammy and pet right on the fence where the two spiderlings spawn and killed them nonstop for a couple hours netting 3-4 stacks of spiderling silk in the process (they spawn every 6 minutes and usually have at least 1 silk and sometimes up to 5 on them). I was high enough level that the merchant and farmer brownies didnt agro me and was far enough away from the guards that they didnt hassle me. During this time, I had also accumulated maybe 6-7 stacks of spider silk from the crag spiders in EK. When the spiders became sparse, I killed everything else all the while keeping an eye out for them. A kind druid (who later sold me another 5 stacks of silk for 100PP) later told me that the snakes are a PH for the spiders. Cured silk masks got me to 82.
I then moved my farming operation out to Nedaria's landing where the grizzlys there were easy kills for a 65 shammy and in about 4-5 hours of total farming there netted me about a stack or two of assorted HQ/MQ bear, cat and wolf pelts. The HQ bear pelts were used to make handmade backpacks up to 88 (which were sold to other players in PoK for about 70PP a piece) and the HQ cat pelts were made into tailored quivers which could have been sold back to a vendor but since my inventory was already full of containers, I just destroyed them (a waste I know, but I didnt think about making them by a vendor).
Up to this point, I only had shawls 1 through 3. The third shawl was pretty easy with my cooking skill of 135. The hardest part for me was finding the snow griffin eggs which required a total of about 10-15 hours of farming EW. I was also told (dunno if true) that the manticores were a placeholder for the griffins so I killed all manticores I found and in the process, collected two manticore manes which will be used for my 6th shawl. I completed the 3rd shawl with no failures at a baking level of 135.
During the farming for the 3rd shawl, I also worked on pottery which was also relatively easy to raise. I used Kuri's guide here to raise my pottery skill to 102 on jars and small bowls and then moved to Abysmal Sea to use Crows Special Brew to make poison vials to 148. I kept all my successes here and fired them on a HQ Firing sheet since these would be used to make Vials of Viscous Mana during my tailoring sessions. I maybe spent 500-1KPP to create 8-10 stacks of poison vials for my Wu's attempts.
Back to tailoring with my stacks of poison vials and silk swatches and since Im now at the point of making Wu's, I get a friend to create Vials of Viscous Mana. I bought about 8 stacks of pearls (little less than 100PP per stack) and gave him the poison vials I made during my pottery training and used the viscous mana to train up to 157 in tailoring on various Wu's Fighting Armor pieces (collar to 128, mask to 135, mantle to 144, pantaloons to 155 and tunic to 157). This is where my skill is at now and Im out of silk and viscous mana
.
Shawl 4 was easy at this point as my pottery skill was considerably higher than the trivial for this one. I had some velium on another character that I just "borrowed" to craft the vial of velium vapors. I then spent about 2 hours at the top of the canyon into Kael using the "pet guard" tip to uncover possible hiding spots for the dwarf and after 5 sets of Kromrif Death Squads (easily outrun back towards Kael entrance). Finally got him to spawn and after the turnin, got my 4th shawl.
For shawl #5, I had to do more farming in Velketors for the 75 crystalline threads. I never really grouped here so I didnt know the zone and spent most of my time in the large room in the back killing spiders there. One time I was fortunate enough to have some xp'ers in the front hallway who didnt need the threads and who kindly let me loot whenever any dropped in return for my buffs. Another time, a 65 ranger and myself went up to the safe ledge where the frenzied spiderling spawns and killed around there for another couple hours netting about 2-3 stacks of crystalline thread. Total time spent in Velks was maybe 8-9 hours over the course of a week or so.
The glowing wurm bile was done in a single sitting and took about 3 hours. Unlike what others posted, this wasnt that bad (3 hours as opposed to the multitude of hours I spent in EW looking for those griffon eggs). At 157 tailoring skill plus geerlock (borrowed from a guildie), I succeeded at all the thread/bile combines and the final combine as well. This is where Im at now.
During the course of my farming, I have stockpiled 2 manticore manes and a frost giant beard so all I needed for my 6th shawl were 2 siren hairs. I got both of these last night in CS right by the zone to SG with a small group. I could have easily solo'd them but had a couple guildies who wanted to tag along so we went into SG. One wipe later inside SG by the well and we called it an evening.
I will try my 6th shawl combinie tonite with the help of my buddy and his geerlock with my 157 tailoring skill. I figure that the trouble of farming more whiskers, beards and hairs is easier than farming acrylia to raise my tailoring skill further.
Cross your fingers and wish me luck.
-Bael
The first step was baking. I had no skill in it but this tradeskill was a breeze to raise. Bat wings and fresh fish which I bought in PoK from the fisherman and the poison vendor in the stall on the west end was all I needed to get to 122. I have only decent equipment but buffed with KEI and my Greater Bear form illusion had a 234 WIS for the majority of my combines. I also did bat wing pie to 142 which required dough to be made so I went to Freeport and killed snakes until I had a couple stacks of eggs to work with.
Brewing was cheap and also easy to raise only requiring me to go thru the recommended skillup method in the brewing guide here. I skipped bog juice since I put 21 training points into brewing and did short beer to 21 (kept them), heady kiola's to 46 (kept them and made them in Freeport west), short ale to 51 (made in PoK), fish wine to 62 (made in PoK) and then skipped over Gnomish Spirits to make Ole Tujims Fierce Brew to 135 (best made in Highpass Hold). No farming was done here as all the components were store bought.
With regards to smithing, I pretty much followed the advice in Zeralenn's guide up to my current skill of around 167. This was done in concordance with my tailoring skill. My first stint of spiderling silk farming was done in Feerott by the druid ring and it was slow going in about 3 days worth of farming (6 hrs maybe?) I only got 3-4 stacks of spiderling silks. I did luck out however in one kind person yelling in OOC in PoK about giving away 6 stacks of shadeling silk which I promptly took off his hands and gave him a healthy tip as well. I also spent quite a bit of time in Marus Seru killing rockhoppers for their LQ and rockhopper hides. I used the shadeling silk to convert all of the LQ rockhopper hides into padding and used the greyhopper hides to skillup to 88 in tailoring making greyhopper masks (mask pattern and a greyhopper hide). Im not sure if they have changed the spawn rates since I did this but the first couple times I farmed MS (mid-late 2003), rockhoppers were as numerous as the stonegrabbers are now allowing me to get to 95 tailoring and stashing about 5-6 stacks of leather padding in my bank in a little over 3-4 hours just doing farming. All in all, Zeralenn's guide was invaluable here. I leveled up to skill 167 on the ornate armor which I sold back and have spent maybe 2-3K to get to this point since I farmed the padding. The biggest cost was buying the gold and electrum bars to make the ornate armor.
As I stated earlier, I was able to get my tailoring skill to 95 relatively cheaply on that greyhopper armor since at the time, they were dropping in abundance and I could kill them in a little under 10 seconds a piece (63 or 64 shammy with pet). At this point, it was time to farm pelts so I headed out to E karana to kill the lions there. I found quite a few crag spiders and basically lived here for a week (20 hours maybe) collecting HQ and MQ cat pelts and collecting all the silk I could get my grubby little hands on. The MQ cat pelts were then converted to LQ pelts for more leather padding. I also found a good spot to farm spiderling silk to be used to convert these LQ pelts into padding in L Fay in the NW corner of the zone in the brownie camp. I parked the shammy and pet right on the fence where the two spiderlings spawn and killed them nonstop for a couple hours netting 3-4 stacks of spiderling silk in the process (they spawn every 6 minutes and usually have at least 1 silk and sometimes up to 5 on them). I was high enough level that the merchant and farmer brownies didnt agro me and was far enough away from the guards that they didnt hassle me. During this time, I had also accumulated maybe 6-7 stacks of spider silk from the crag spiders in EK. When the spiders became sparse, I killed everything else all the while keeping an eye out for them. A kind druid (who later sold me another 5 stacks of silk for 100PP) later told me that the snakes are a PH for the spiders. Cured silk masks got me to 82.
I then moved my farming operation out to Nedaria's landing where the grizzlys there were easy kills for a 65 shammy and in about 4-5 hours of total farming there netted me about a stack or two of assorted HQ/MQ bear, cat and wolf pelts. The HQ bear pelts were used to make handmade backpacks up to 88 (which were sold to other players in PoK for about 70PP a piece) and the HQ cat pelts were made into tailored quivers which could have been sold back to a vendor but since my inventory was already full of containers, I just destroyed them (a waste I know, but I didnt think about making them by a vendor).
Up to this point, I only had shawls 1 through 3. The third shawl was pretty easy with my cooking skill of 135. The hardest part for me was finding the snow griffin eggs which required a total of about 10-15 hours of farming EW. I was also told (dunno if true) that the manticores were a placeholder for the griffins so I killed all manticores I found and in the process, collected two manticore manes which will be used for my 6th shawl. I completed the 3rd shawl with no failures at a baking level of 135.
During the farming for the 3rd shawl, I also worked on pottery which was also relatively easy to raise. I used Kuri's guide here to raise my pottery skill to 102 on jars and small bowls and then moved to Abysmal Sea to use Crows Special Brew to make poison vials to 148. I kept all my successes here and fired them on a HQ Firing sheet since these would be used to make Vials of Viscous Mana during my tailoring sessions. I maybe spent 500-1KPP to create 8-10 stacks of poison vials for my Wu's attempts.
Back to tailoring with my stacks of poison vials and silk swatches and since Im now at the point of making Wu's, I get a friend to create Vials of Viscous Mana. I bought about 8 stacks of pearls (little less than 100PP per stack) and gave him the poison vials I made during my pottery training and used the viscous mana to train up to 157 in tailoring on various Wu's Fighting Armor pieces (collar to 128, mask to 135, mantle to 144, pantaloons to 155 and tunic to 157). This is where my skill is at now and Im out of silk and viscous mana
.Shawl 4 was easy at this point as my pottery skill was considerably higher than the trivial for this one. I had some velium on another character that I just "borrowed" to craft the vial of velium vapors. I then spent about 2 hours at the top of the canyon into Kael using the "pet guard" tip to uncover possible hiding spots for the dwarf and after 5 sets of Kromrif Death Squads (easily outrun back towards Kael entrance). Finally got him to spawn and after the turnin, got my 4th shawl.
For shawl #5, I had to do more farming in Velketors for the 75 crystalline threads. I never really grouped here so I didnt know the zone and spent most of my time in the large room in the back killing spiders there. One time I was fortunate enough to have some xp'ers in the front hallway who didnt need the threads and who kindly let me loot whenever any dropped in return for my buffs. Another time, a 65 ranger and myself went up to the safe ledge where the frenzied spiderling spawns and killed around there for another couple hours netting about 2-3 stacks of crystalline thread. Total time spent in Velks was maybe 8-9 hours over the course of a week or so.
The glowing wurm bile was done in a single sitting and took about 3 hours. Unlike what others posted, this wasnt that bad (3 hours as opposed to the multitude of hours I spent in EW looking for those griffon eggs). At 157 tailoring skill plus geerlock (borrowed from a guildie), I succeeded at all the thread/bile combines and the final combine as well. This is where Im at now.
During the course of my farming, I have stockpiled 2 manticore manes and a frost giant beard so all I needed for my 6th shawl were 2 siren hairs. I got both of these last night in CS right by the zone to SG with a small group. I could have easily solo'd them but had a couple guildies who wanted to tag along so we went into SG. One wipe later inside SG by the well and we called it an evening.
I will try my 6th shawl combinie tonite with the help of my buddy and his geerlock with my 157 tailoring skill. I figure that the trouble of farming more whiskers, beards and hairs is easier than farming acrylia to raise my tailoring skill further.
Cross your fingers and wish me luck.
-Bael
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