Fast skillups with shadowscream

[zpx85]

Hello i have a level 63 cleric with 280 wis and I have a geerlok automated hammer. ive been doing shadowscream bracers and my smithing skill has gone from 188 to 192 in the past 2 days, and according to the new smithing UI if i use the automated hammer my skill is 201. My question is would I get faster skillups if I used the hammer and had a higher skill level which was closer to the trivial, or without the hammer and a lower level... or does it even make a difference?

[Kandrak]

The Geerlok only helps with successes (ie you want to make something and not fail at it, like a breastplate for a client). It doesn't help with skillups I've found.

[Tingteng]

I didn't use a gear lock with shadowsuck. I'd rather have some STR or Wis in that slot to go for the skill up than get that 5% mod so i can sell something for 2pp

[Aanna]

People have done studies on exactly this question and found that, all things being equal, using a Geerlok increases your rate of skill ups.

This is because you are more likely to skill up on a successful combine, and the higher your skill level the greater the chance of a success.

If you're losing oodles of your primary smithing stat when you equip a Geerlok, then your mileage may vary. Also, because the RNG is only random over a huge sample size, it may appear to you that it's not true with *your* combines.

However, overall, the Geerlok is a good choice.

-Aanna

[Fenadin]

I have seen those studies about successes and skill-ups and I don't believe the conclusions. I think that your skill up rate is related to how trivial an item is. When the item is way out of your range you have less success AND less skill ups. At some point, I believe you hit a sweet spot for skill-ups. That sweet spot is probably 10 to 25 skill points away from your current skill level. Then the skill ups slow down again. I believe this pattern skews those studies.

As an example, if you started doing fine steel as your first skill up path. Your skill ups would be very slow and successes few. This would affect the skill-up/success data. As you became more skilled, you would have more successes and more skill-ups.

The data I have looked actually tends to show that there really isn't much if any of a correlation between skill-ups and success. Unfortunately it is very hard to prove.

For my money, I never equip a geerlok when skilling up unless it helps me with money. (I always equiped the geerlok when doing jewelry for example.) I wouldn't equip it when doing shadowscream.

[Balkin]

I'm with Fenadin on this one.

I only use a geerlock when it's going to ultimately save me a ton of money...

Or when required like when I made Etherea rings from 210 to 212 smithing.

Otherwise, I use it for things I REALLY want to succeed on only, and keep a WIS item in my primary for skilling up.

[Aanna]

Honestly, when I did Shadowscream I didn't use my geerlok, either. I felt that I had better skill-ups without it.

But so much of this is superstitious. I feel that I have better success rates when I have a Dex buff, but that has been out-right denied by Sony.

The thing it comes down to is the huge sample size needed to make the RNG really random. While one person's experience definitely *isn't* enough to make it random, perhaps the larger test studies were large enough? It's hard to say.

Any 10,000-attempt studies out there? Last I heard, that was the number needed to make the EQ RNG perfectly random.

Basically, until we have a study of that scope, it's all superstition. But in the meantime, the bigger the study the better the chance it's correct. If I were betting for real money, I'd go with the studies I've seen here, use the geerlok, and stock up on Wis (or Int or Str) in other slots.

-Aanna
How that for equivocal?

[Cavel]

The only reason I have always used the Gearlock when smithing (Even for Skill ups) is that I want some return on my investment. Shadowsuck I can sell back to the vendors if I make them for at least some cash... But I always make sure my Str is Maxed as well.