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LDoN Armors, Smithing Finally Done Right
With the advent of LDoN, we got some fantastic new recipes. They helped fill a gap between non-magical and top-end armors that was sorely needed, but their real benefit was that they made smithing a viable, dynamic trade for us.
Before LDoN, when new recipes came out, they were either used heavily for skillups and had their market completely blown, or they only had a few final products, and the market for them became a matter of diminishing returns on the same pieces until the market value was virtually the same as the cost involved to make them.
This changed somewhat with the blue diamond armors of the May 8th patch. A great number of cultural and imbued cultural armors came into play. The only problem with these was the expense and time involved made their costs prohibitively high, and the farming involved was a huge pain in the rear. Additionally, only those people with good cultural recipes were sought-after to make them.
All that changed with LDoN. The armor, while not cheap to make, is reasonably affordable. The temper agents' availability, while not excessive, allows for a fairly steady flow of supplies, especially with the aid of friends and guildmates. The greatest feature of the LDoN armors, however, is the degree to which you can customize them.
Every chain and plate class, and every race can benefit greatly from these recipes. Gnome rogues will see small deep cavern steel ringmail as outstanding armor. Shaman will love sandblasted steel ringmail, while the bards in my guild are tripping over themselves getting Gothic steel armor. Warriors are loving both Gothic and Calcified steels, while clerics and pallies are snapping up sandblasted, and shadowknights are eyeing the Frosted steel I churn out. While some armors are in more demand than others, for every temper there is someone who'd love to get their hands on the armor you can make with it. And the stuff we make with it is GOOD, too! With decent stats, strong AC, and those lovely two augmentation slots, we can sell it, at a good profit, for considerably less than most comparable armors.
Being a smith as an occupation is back in fashion. I sometimes spend an entire night cranking out LDoN armor for my guild and for buyers who want certain pieces made. I give a shout in the auction channel and shout channel that I'm making all types of LDoN armors to-order, chain or plate, all sizes, and give some examples of what I can make, and the orders come in.
Some people think that the skillup people are gonna ruin these recipes for the full-time for-profit smiths. It won't happen.
Skillers are no competition at all, for me. They try to sell a lot of stuff in bulk, but in order to make it at all, they have to buy their molds in bulk, and they only buy certain molds; others will cost too much. Most of them don't even have the patience to sell 70 of the same piece in the bazaar, so they just go sell them to merchants. But let's take the few that do try to sell their mass-produced items in the bazaar:
The net effect is, there's a buttload of small calcified steel collars available. Whoop-de-doo. Some folks might get a lucky deal on these due to their mass-availability.
Now, what I do is make whatever type of armor people want in their size for the slots they want. Instead of having them buy at my convenience while I'm sleeping in /trader in the bazaar, I custom-make the stuff at their convenience. People appreciate that.
With five types of armor, and chain or plate armor available, in three different sizes, for 12 slots...
That's 360 different pieces of armor. Somewhere, there's a person who will want one of those 360 possibilities. No bulk-skiller will even try to have 360 different pieces up for sale.
No-one can make a decent spread of those combinations. It's useless to try. So skill-up people will flood the small calcified steel gorget market, while the sandblasted chain leggings market goes completely ignored, and shaman look at it lustily. And that's where I come in.
You can get away with charging for your custom-smithing service at a price that will make you quite a sum. While I can't hold 360 different pieces of armor, I can hold 5 stacks of different tempers, some water flasks, my smithing tools, and some platinum for molds. I get the order, and I make the pieces. When people quote the prices they see in the bazaar to me and try to tell me that I overcharge them, I just tell them that those prices are offered by folks trying to skill-up, that won't take orders, but that I will custom-make them what they want, how they want it, and when they want it. I don't try to compete with the skillers; I don't have to. I won't compete with their ingredient-covering prices, and they can't compete with my flexibility. The orders roll in.
I've made and spent a fortune this way already, and will continue to do so for quite some time. My guild loves me for making them these armors, and helps gather the temper agents for them. My reputation as a smith has spread, and I find myself getting tells from friends and guild buddies of people who have ordered armor pieces from me before. I get tells from people looking for all kinds of smithing implements.
In short, these LDoN armors give me an opportunity to be a smith, not just by skill, but by trade. I wish I knew who to write a thank-you note to the developer that came up with this idea.
These LDoN armors are the best thing that's ever happened to smithing; skillers can use them to skill up, while true tradesmen can make some good platinum off them by being true tradesmen. Would that every armor line we had were like this.
Feroce
Before LDoN, when new recipes came out, they were either used heavily for skillups and had their market completely blown, or they only had a few final products, and the market for them became a matter of diminishing returns on the same pieces until the market value was virtually the same as the cost involved to make them.
This changed somewhat with the blue diamond armors of the May 8th patch. A great number of cultural and imbued cultural armors came into play. The only problem with these was the expense and time involved made their costs prohibitively high, and the farming involved was a huge pain in the rear. Additionally, only those people with good cultural recipes were sought-after to make them.
All that changed with LDoN. The armor, while not cheap to make, is reasonably affordable. The temper agents' availability, while not excessive, allows for a fairly steady flow of supplies, especially with the aid of friends and guildmates. The greatest feature of the LDoN armors, however, is the degree to which you can customize them.
Every chain and plate class, and every race can benefit greatly from these recipes. Gnome rogues will see small deep cavern steel ringmail as outstanding armor. Shaman will love sandblasted steel ringmail, while the bards in my guild are tripping over themselves getting Gothic steel armor. Warriors are loving both Gothic and Calcified steels, while clerics and pallies are snapping up sandblasted, and shadowknights are eyeing the Frosted steel I churn out. While some armors are in more demand than others, for every temper there is someone who'd love to get their hands on the armor you can make with it. And the stuff we make with it is GOOD, too! With decent stats, strong AC, and those lovely two augmentation slots, we can sell it, at a good profit, for considerably less than most comparable armors.
Being a smith as an occupation is back in fashion. I sometimes spend an entire night cranking out LDoN armor for my guild and for buyers who want certain pieces made. I give a shout in the auction channel and shout channel that I'm making all types of LDoN armors to-order, chain or plate, all sizes, and give some examples of what I can make, and the orders come in.
Some people think that the skillup people are gonna ruin these recipes for the full-time for-profit smiths. It won't happen.
Skillers are no competition at all, for me. They try to sell a lot of stuff in bulk, but in order to make it at all, they have to buy their molds in bulk, and they only buy certain molds; others will cost too much. Most of them don't even have the patience to sell 70 of the same piece in the bazaar, so they just go sell them to merchants. But let's take the few that do try to sell their mass-produced items in the bazaar:
The net effect is, there's a buttload of small calcified steel collars available. Whoop-de-doo. Some folks might get a lucky deal on these due to their mass-availability.
Now, what I do is make whatever type of armor people want in their size for the slots they want. Instead of having them buy at my convenience while I'm sleeping in /trader in the bazaar, I custom-make the stuff at their convenience. People appreciate that.
With five types of armor, and chain or plate armor available, in three different sizes, for 12 slots...
That's 360 different pieces of armor. Somewhere, there's a person who will want one of those 360 possibilities. No bulk-skiller will even try to have 360 different pieces up for sale.
No-one can make a decent spread of those combinations. It's useless to try. So skill-up people will flood the small calcified steel gorget market, while the sandblasted chain leggings market goes completely ignored, and shaman look at it lustily. And that's where I come in.
You can get away with charging for your custom-smithing service at a price that will make you quite a sum. While I can't hold 360 different pieces of armor, I can hold 5 stacks of different tempers, some water flasks, my smithing tools, and some platinum for molds. I get the order, and I make the pieces. When people quote the prices they see in the bazaar to me and try to tell me that I overcharge them, I just tell them that those prices are offered by folks trying to skill-up, that won't take orders, but that I will custom-make them what they want, how they want it, and when they want it. I don't try to compete with the skillers; I don't have to. I won't compete with their ingredient-covering prices, and they can't compete with my flexibility. The orders roll in.
I've made and spent a fortune this way already, and will continue to do so for quite some time. My guild loves me for making them these armors, and helps gather the temper agents for them. My reputation as a smith has spread, and I find myself getting tells from friends and guild buddies of people who have ordered armor pieces from me before. I get tells from people looking for all kinds of smithing implements.
In short, these LDoN armors give me an opportunity to be a smith, not just by skill, but by trade. I wish I knew who to write a thank-you note to the developer that came up with this idea.
These LDoN armors are the best thing that's ever happened to smithing; skillers can use them to skill up, while true tradesmen can make some good platinum off them by being true tradesmen. Would that every armor line we had were like this.
Feroce
Seasons.
and much cheaper than the 1800pp i used to twink my wifes necro. wife faction at max ally now though. 
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