Research - Best Tradeskill Ever

[Ysall]

Now I’ve finally maxed research and got my lovely lvl 7 trophy, I’d like to give a huge thanks to the developers for perhaps on of the best executed tradeskill changes since PoP.

The new DoD research recipies have the following benefits:-

• Clear route all the way from 1 to 300
• A logical and reusable spell engine that can be applied to spells from other expansions (looking forward to being able to make OoW spells.
• Adhered to the principle that it shouldn’t be possible to get all the way to 300 using vendor bought ingredients
• Drops required to make spells (saltpetre, sulphur, and the various parchments) all dropped at a level sufficient to support decent skill up rates (you can get to 252 on sulphur and saltpeter alone)
• Skill up recipies actually produced products that had a market.
• Finally made GoD spells available (and tradeable) to the casual player. This righted an ancient wrong of the GoD expansion i.e. how ridiculously hard it was for mana classes to get GoD spells. Even after xping solidly in GoD, getting my BiC aug, and reaching Tacvi, a year after the expansion came out, I was still missing one of my GoD spells. And folks new to EQ had zero chance of getting spells from GoD content.

Only things I could possibly improve are making LDoN spells available (new players can’t get access to these any more, LDoN is old content, and almost impossible to get groups), and allowing the combat books of melees to be made.

No other tradeskill has given me as much pleasure as research, nor yielded such a huge market. I have sold at least 2,000 spells now. Name me another tradeskills, apart from brewing and baking, that provides that kind of volume market.

But the main reason its given me so much pleasure is the feedback I’ve had from buyers. I’ve never had anything like it. I get tell after tell thanking me for providing a spell they have been trying for years to get, and had all but given up hope. I know how I feel when I get a new spell, especially one I’ve been trying to get for months, and its glorious being able to pass that feeling on to so many.

And best of all, I’ve made profit like a bandit. Probably about 6-8 million plat all told. Its paid for skilling up my trophies and more besides.

So, all in all, thank you N'greth for a perfect example of how to get a tradeskill upgrade right. Lovely job.

[Zacatac]

Hmm, I need to go raise my prices. . .

I've also had fun with this, although currently at 277 so a long way from maxing out a trophy.

It did indeed fill a huge void by providing spells that were very difficult for most people to get now days. I'm raiding GoD right now, and I was still missing 2 out of 3 spells from there.

I've sold a 1000 spells by now. That's a lot of people who needed spells! Just last night a bard came up and bought 4 different spells. In fact I'm getting so many sales I can't keep up with the 65s due to lack of runic parchments for sale.

Spells are essential to the caster classes. And the world is spread so thin now days with new expansions that it becomes very hard to get "old content" spells. I would imagine that the next set added in the future would include LDoN spells.

[Elfdruidess]

I agree with Ysall on everything in her post, except the 6-8 mil plat part :P. Too much competition on my server to do that.

I didn't keep count of the number of spells I sold, since lvl 62-63 spells assisted me alot on the way up. I did keep count of my total net profit, and although it's no where near what Ysall has earned, it's good enough. Last time I had such excellent tradeskill income was when the PotC recipes came out and my smithing was already at 244.

Two other things I want to applaud the research system that were not mentioned in Ysall's post:

(1) Every item made for skillup at a lower lvl is reusable in a later stage on the skillup path, so that items created from skillup combines are never wasted.

(2) Colorfulness of the raw materials (all the pigment and vials)! The sight of Tinker bolts and gears depresses me. For me, the happiness of doing research has alot to do with looking at a colorful inventory.

[Ysall]

Only reason I managed to make so much profit was becuase I was already 227 skill when the new research became available (only 2 others on the server were). I then payed silly silly prices for sulfur and saltpeter (700-1kp each) to get to 252 skill before the changes were made that made these common.

So although I needlessly spent about 3 mill buying saltpeter and sulfur before it became cheap, it bought me 3 months head start, and a virtual monopoly on spells, esp the lvl 65 ones, before any competitors entered the market, and started buying up runics. I may have been paying 8-10kp for the smudged runics, but I was selling the resulting spells for 17.5-25kp as fast as I could make them, about 30-50 a week. Golden days I wont forget in a hurry.

Course, I didnt xp for about 3 months, but it was worth it.

[filobeto]

[*]you can get to 252 on sulphur and saltpeter alone

I thought you could only get to 243 on these, what is this combine you speak of?

And a huge congrats on your accomplishment!

[Ysall]

I'm sorry, you are quite correct, it is 242.

[Amheh]

How you get to 242 with just saltpeter and sulphur??

[hangovr]

Runic Parchment Solution

[Newcromancer]

"How you get to 242 with just saltpeter and sulphur??"

Well, it isn't just saltpeter and sulfur but those are the only non vendor buyable components for the runic parchment solutions.

[tawnos]

You guys must be lucky to be on uncontested servers. I've been on 2 different servers since dod (bertox and luclin) and both have had 5 or so major sellers. I was curious so i ran a parse and have sold 409 spells for a total of 3,514,850 plat in revenue. I still have an inventory of 324 spells and have 262 more parchments (and counting!) ready to go for what i hope is my final skillup run (at 288 skill now). At my current rate of selling maybe 1-2 spells a day i will probably never sell them all out before they become so old that nobody has a use for them anymore.

Research is the best tradeskill (tinkering being a close second as its not available to taller and more stinky races). I do wish there would have been more skillup opportunities and less production of spells to get to 300 research. I'll end up making close to 1000 spells over my skilling up and thats assuming i don't become even more masochistic and decide to work on the trophy. That seems a bit much and has pretty badly devalued spells to have several people producing so many.

[Newcromancer]

shhhh don't tell anyone, it seems that most don't believe you can make money at trades.

[Ysall]

It is possible, but the trick to it is to be first. The first few people who made Druzzil bows cleaned up, selling for prices up to 300kp. The folks that arrived later on the scene will be lucky to get 20kp.

Same applied to research. Soon as I heard Research was going to get brushed with the magic dust of new recipies, I immediately set about maxing my Research (it was 180 at the time) to the then max skill possible of 227.

So when the new recipies arrived, I was at 235+ skill, and churning out spells for sale within 2 weeks of the new expansion arriving, whilst potential competitors were still trying to get to the 220's. That month or so extra time in the market was all it took, and by the time competitors were selling lvl 62/63 spells, I was already making and selling lvl 64/65 spells. I probably had 3 months solid where I was the only person making the very high end GoD spell runes.

So yes, you can make money. Do your research, find out the new recipies fast (either through going on beta, or from trawling EQ traders), and soon as you identify the new ingrediants, buy them all like crazy, before the gougers learns which ones are valuable and which ones are not.

[illana]

I think you're right on the money, Tawnos! I am on The Rathe (Karana), and I will probably never get 300 in research at this point. Or if I do, I will NEVER make up the plat I spent on Runic Parchments. I have been really bummed out about research. I absolutely LOVED the revamp, but unfortunately if a researcher didn't get in on the opening floor, it became almost impossible to max research effectively.

My research had been maxed before the revamp, and I started the DoDH research in January 2006. That was waaay too late as it turns out. I have been stockpiling runics at about an average of 5kpp/per, spending about 600kpp total on parchments. Spells are selling like garbage now with all the competition on my server; averaging 11kpp on lvl 65 spells.

Factor in a couple things: I only sell a couple lvl 65 spells a week, and the prices on lvl 65 spell are quickly plummeting due to oversaturation. Because of those things, I will have a tremendous financial loss when and if I ever sell all my spells. My only wish is that they had thought of a better way to skill up after one maxed out their research on subcombines. The glut of spells overwhelmed my poor researcher. The thought of making ANY profit on research has recently been effaced...rapidly.

Currently, my researcher is sitting at around 275 with my Expert Research Trophy at 42%. I've been so depressed about research, I have put it on hold for a bit. I've been too burned out. I'm thinking I might just use up my 100 runics, take my 75% success rate, try to sell what I make, and be done with it for now. Then I will pray that they add more spells to research so I can afford to get 300.

[Zacatac]

I have been stockpiling runics at about an average of 5kpp/per

Spells are selling . . .11kpp on lvl 65 spells.

I'm thinking I might just use up my 100 runics. . .

Ok, I really don't see your problem here. You have 100 x 5k profit (less some failures) sitting in your bank and you're not using them? I've been making 65 spells since I hit 242 and bought Mastery-3 AAs. Why do you have a million PP worth of unfinished inventory?

Make the spells, price them at 10k each, and sell a dozen a week.

[illana]

I don't think you quite understand. I have a success rate of ~75%. If I make 100 spells w/failure, I'll have about 80 spells if I get lucky. First of all, I am selling maybe 3 lvl 65 spells a week. My prices are the LOWEST on the market already. Factored out with deflation from a massivly saturated market I definately won't be selling them all for 10kpp per, nor will they be selling any time soon. I am extremely happy for the very few who did well with research. Just pointing out that it was a one-trick pony, poorly designed for any staying power.