Sitting at 299

[Elfdruidess]

I've been sitting at 299 with 107 combines and counting. I bet Melkior can understand how it feels like.

Don't think I care anymore. May as well make a record of it . My own record to break is 285 to 286 which took 125 combines. Total combines from 250 up to this point is just slightly over 1000.

Thinking on the bright side ... hey, how hard can the 7/7 trophy be! It'll just be 1 hell point x 4 :P.

[Melkior]

I feel your pain Elfdruidess, just keep at it and you'll get that last point. It took me over 100 combines to get it, and was frustrating as heck! I am certainly not rushing to work on leveling trophy, just going to let it happen over time.

Good luck, and I hope that last point comes sooner rather than later!

[Zacatac]

I've done about 60 combines without a skillup over the last 2 weeks, at 268 skill.

[Ysall]

You have my profound sympathies. For supposedly the easiest tradeskill to level up, must admit the 37 combines per skill up once you get to 290+ did not seem to reflected by my own personal skill-up rate, which was close to around 50-60 for those last few points.

[Elfdruidess]

Finally made it. Whew! Ended up at 134 combines for that last point. Total combines from 250 to 300 was around 1050.

At least the trophy only takes 30 mins to make, faster than any other hehe. I reserved a highland sludge in bank but found out even the master trophy only takes a tempest swatch after patch.

[Elfdruidess]

I suspect I belong to the first crop of researchers aiming at 300 without going the lvl 65 spell route.

I started late. Mid-December. With my pre-DoD skill of 208. Three players are selling lvl 65 spells already.

And since I was aiming at 300, I did not want to spend 18 AAs that will only have a temporary use. With 18 AAs, max success of 95% on a 351 trivial will be 288+5%. Without 18 AAs, max success will be at 293+5%. It will be even lower now with the 8% mod (280 for Mastery3, 285 for no Mastery).

So I went the lvl 62-64 spell route. On my server in Jan and Feb, lvl 62-64 spells is a totally open market. There are so few of them on sale in the bazaar. The profit margin for 63-64 spells is even bigger than 65 spells *even* if the success rate is the same. It is of course a much more crowded market now since the introduction of the 8% mod.

So lvl 62+63 spells to 262. Then lvl 63+64 spells to 292. Before 292, lvl 65 spells have only been a side business.

Up till now, I'll still say lvl 63 spells was what got me here (grimys are, I must admit, much rarer than either shabbys or runics). I can only break even with lvl 65 spells due to the heavy competition. And since 292, I needed to break into my earnings from lvl 63 spells to support those last 8 points.

[Melkior]

Congratulations Elfdruidess! It's quite a long road, and you made it =)

[Qualan]

I wish i could do with so few combines a skillup with fletching ..........

150 would be a quick point

[Elfdruidess]

Aye. According to the calculator on this site, Research has the same skillup rate as Smithing and Tailoring on successes (while failures do not reduce skillup rate either, making the overall skillup rate even better than Smithing and Tailoring). Smithing and Tailoring is at Difficulty 2. Research is slightly better than 2. While Fletching is at 4.

[Taadieri]

My researcher is still stuck at 286.

Partly because of limited supplies of parchments and mostly because I go weeks at a time without making any spells except replacements for the GoD spells I sell.

The number of subcombines needed for a large skill up run is depressing.

[tawnos]

I was kinda wondering what people were seeing for numbers of combines per skillup after a depressing run i had this weekend. I started counting combines at 253 skill and had 2 runs that were 192 combines for 17 skillups (~11.3 combines/skillup) and then 102 for 9 (again ~11.3 combines/skillup). Apparently this was just a massive run of good luck as i did a larger batch of 262 combines and got only 4 skillups (65.5 combines/skillup). So is the RNG playing some really weird games with me or is there a very steep discontinuity around 280 skill?