Raw cost from 222-250 making sickles?

[Jora_Delossian]

Provided I do all subcombines and imbuing myself, what is an approximate cost to skill up from 222-250 making sickles? I am sick to death of farming and wonder if I have enough plat to finish it off.

[Noni DeeCups]

I don't think I can count that high... I wish ya luck!

[Tudamorf]

It's 7.5K per stack, and about 1 stack per skill point, so on average 210K, though this could have a variance of +/- 100K given the RNG.

The real problem with sickles isn't the money, it's the massive subcomining. You'll have nightmares about celestial essences, especially with the new anti-macroing delay that will slow you down a lot. Not to mention the massive imbues. Honestly, farming shadow scream substances will be much faster if you are AE DD-capable and will be a lot easier on your wrists. The only component that comes slowly is swirling shadows, and you can buy that in the Bazaar for about 1-2K per stack.

[Tides]

no way ShadowScream is the worse!

frankly... SS gives me jack for skillups. EVER.

with sickles i get 1up per 20/30 combines. even if you only did 1 stack a day you'd be a 250smith in no time. with sickles it's relatively easy for the subcombines if your server is anywhere like mine. you buy the celestial essence for 100-150pp/stack off bazaar mules, buy the imbued emeralds for 400pp-600pp/stack and then go to it in PoK and make your dust. make sure you purchased 10 and a 1/2 stacks of celestial essence (extra for the fails) for the dust, mistletoe temper(easy to make, if you buy the celestial essence and imbued emeralds pre-made you've got few subcombines til you do the final subcombines which aren't really subcombines to me). it's not as easy as putting together shadowscream but you can make your money back plus some doing sickles and you don't have to do any god forsaken farming or manipulation of that cracked out bugged war in the land of oz.

[Tudamorf]

Originally posted by Tides
frankly... SS gives me jack for skillups. EVER.

That's just your luck with the RNG. Neither recipe is particularly "good" or "bad" for skill gains. I did shadow scream from the 220s to 250, and ended up with average of over 1 point per stack. The quest took about 2 hours total; farming all the substances took about 10 hours total, in the south island of Hollowshade Moor, manipulating the war; and I part farmed (doing quick runs to Twilight Sea in between other things), part bought the swirling shadows. Overall much faster and much cheaper than sickles, not to mention only about 10% of the clicking effort.

[Tides]

you've got to be on crack...

evercrack... sickles take me a half hour to do 20combines if i'm slow.

whereas the farming for the SS is rediculous. if the war hasn't started there's a good hour before you can even get the dog's up. if it is started you have to probably fight with others over what you want to farm. 20combines can take anywhere from an hour to a few. not mentioning the shadows which would be better just to be bought from bazaar.

[Noni DeeCups]

Originally posted by Tides
you've got to be on crack...

evercrack... sickles take me a half hour to do 20combines if i'm slow.

And you are saying Tudamorf is on crack?

[Tudamorf]

Originally posted by Tides
sickles take me a half hour to do 20combines if i'm slow.

Half an hour is actually rather speedy given the new anti-macroing delay. Even so, 28 points at half an hour a point = 14 hours, which is about how long it took me with shadow scream (including farming) but at 10x the cost and with 10x the clicking and wrist pain.

Remember, it's all in the RNG...

[Afierra]

mmm thats good luck, 3 skills lol

[Taushar]

Here is my thought on making sickles. I am doing them for skill up right now and it seems to be a better choice for me at current skill level. It doesn't take me 30 mins to combine a stack, more like an hour and a half to two. Here are the steps I take.

I usually do them in SH. It's where most of the stuff are nearby. I am a GM both in pottery and brewing. I usually do few more combines than needed on sub-combines since there will be some failures. First, I go get a VoQ or at least KEI. This is not really needed since I can get to current max Wisdon of 330 using equipment and food/drink. It's for mana regen for imbuing Emerald (btw, I am a Tunare worshipping Cleric).

Usually, I don't do CE combines, just buy those in Bazaar for 9 -10pp each. I need 9 stacks (180) so the cost is about 1800pp just on those.

I then buy 4 stacks of Emerald, a stack of Ruby and a stack of Sapphire. They are all available in SH, Emerald and Ruby from gem merchant right near Bazaar zone and Sapphire near the casters GM area. Stack of Emerald is about 350pp, so time 4 equals 1400pp. A stack of Sapphire is about 2100 and Ruby, I think, is about 2500.

I sit down and Imbue 3 stacks of Emerald. This takes me a full bar of mana plus another half bar, thus the need for VoQ or KEI. It helps with recovery time between the imbue sessions. Cost is nothing.

Then I make a run to FG and buy 3 stacks of Elvin Wine. Back to SH, buy 3 stacks of Mistletoe and 3 stacks of Jar of Acid. The total cost is neglible, about 150pp at most.

Get to the Kiln and combine 3 stacks of Jar of Acid, CE and Imbued Emeralds. That gets me 3 stacks of Blessed Dust of Tunare.

Off to the brew barrel. I combine 3 stacks of Elvin Wine, Mistletoe and CE to get the Mistletoe Temper.

Then off to the forge for the final combines after picking up the smithing hammer from the bank. I usually have a alt on second account near by since I rarely have 90 slots open for final combines. He holds stuff as I make them and give them back to me for combines. The molds, 20 of each times 3, and sheet metal costs are also low, about 10-15pp, iirc.

So, so far I have spent 1800+1400+2100+2500+150 = about 10kpp per stack of combine. I am averaging about 1 point per stack so you can do the math on what you will need.

The good part making sickles is that the you can actually realize profits from combines. At my current skills, 237 with my trophy, I can average 8-10 successes per stack of combines. I sell them in all 2-3 days at 2kpp each easily (this is Xev). So, I can make 16-20kpp per stack of combine with a cost of about 10kpp. Not too bad.

For me, this seems to be the better way to go than Shadowscream. Instead of farming for hours, I can spend 1-2 hours combining each day and get a point in smithing as well as 6-10kpp profit.

Taushar

[Asuah]

sickles are great for me right now. i have a druid friend that will imbue emeralds by the bagload and i make my own celestial essence. with 320 int my progress was as follows, with each run being 20 combines:

5 successes, 1 point (228)
7 successes, 0 points(228)
4 successes, 1 point (229)
5 successes, 4 points(233) - freak accident here hehe
9successes,0 points(233)
11successes,2points (235)
11successes,2points(237)

each i sold for 1300 plat, and managing a profit of 7kish cause they sell so fast at that price. it takes me about an hour to make a run of 20, but its good profit and it gives skillpoints at a steady rate. best of all, theres no farming involved

[Arghargh]

If you are patient enough, you can sell sickles in the bazaar at a net profit. Once I got to about 220 on shadowscream, I made mostly sickles to 250. When I sold out, I'd make another batch. 220 to 250 was slow, but very profitable.

Arghargh Grumble, Darkblood
65 Ogre Shaman of Rallos Zek

200 Alchemy
210 Baking
250 Blacksmithing
250 Brewing
200 Fishing
200 Fletching
200 Jewelry
200 Pottery
170 Tailoring

[splunge]

/cry

Give Rangers Imbue Emerald... PLEASE! *whimper*

[Crystalweave]

Being a DEF SK I find I get more skill-ups with cultural then i do with SS. Has any DEF tried the sickles with comparible skill ups?
I usually get one skill up per every 7 combines of cultural. The SS i usually get one skill up with every 24 combines... the farming is making me crazy. Not to mention i think i wore out hubby's Clerics AE spell.
I have the money for sickles from 220-250 if the skill up is reasonable. 1 to every 10 I would say is reasonable.

Crystalweave- Rathe Server

[Arghargh]

From 220 to 250 doing sickles, I had one skill every 21.38 attempts. With SS, it was one in every 18.56 attempts.

If you look at the various logs posted, getting 1 skill up per 10 combines is NOT a likely event. 1 per 20 is much more the average.

Arghargh Grumble, Darkblood
65 Ogre Shaman of Rallos Zek

200 Alchemy
210 Baking
250 Blacksmithing
250 Brewing
200 Fishing
200 Fletching
200 Jewelry
200 Pottery
170 Tailoring