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  • Need some Insight from the Elders

    Hello all, I am an aspiring Human Smith with 188 in Blacksmithing skill. I don't have tons of cash and I don't have the patience to farm Shadowscream components so I'm asking for your advice

    I'm a level 60 paladin on the Quellious server so I can farm acrylia ore fairly easy, Getting HQ ore is not a problem either. The problem is the tempers. As you all know you need Two windstones and an essence of Wind to make a combined acrylia temper, and to make Field plate you need Two Essence of Sunlight ect. My problem though is that Windstones seem to cost 150pp each and Essence of sunlight seems to sell for no less than 250pp each. That puts the cost of making tempers past 400pp per temper and with 20-30 combines per skill point thats a sickening amount of Cash. Are there no other way?

    I've been farming Ore and making Acrylia Bonings and Studs, but they can in no way make up for the cost of temper components. I'm a stubborn bastard but even I will eventually get tired of getting no where fast because people tend to be greedy

    So if you know something I don't let me know. Things that would help me tons would be stuff like:

    Best location to farm Windstones and essence of wind. They seem to drop randomly on alot of mobs, but since I can't track I can't run around and cleanse zones of certain types of mobs

    Chroma drakes in WL, what kind of faction hit are they on those suckers? Not like killing in PoG I hope?

    What can be done about the greed of people in the bazaar? Mailbombs?

    Thanks in advance
    Torm Starbringer
    65th Lord Protector of Erollisi Marr
    Smith at Large

  • #2
    ..

    honestly, i know you said you didnt want to do it, and to be really honest, i thought there was no way i could due to moon lag, but shadowscream isnt THAT hard to work on. at 60 you could slaughter just about everything for the substances and the shades in twilight sea shouldnt be hard for a 60 paly..you'd undead proc em to death. cost is basically cost of the molds..

    Comment


    • #3
      Torm,
      actually the shadowscream is the way to go, if you've read this thread it explains how to control the wars in Hollowshade really easily, i've farmed the south village solo and gotten on average 50 substance an hour, and the swirling shadows aren't any harder

      What's hiding under Maeve's robe

      Comment


      • #4
        Skillup Path

        I am 189 in Smithing myself, and also considering my options, the more I think about it the more I am inclined to head the way of Shadowscream.

        I think if you set yourself a reasonable target as in gather enough for 200 combines to make humming orbs, then kill shadows until you get enough for 30 attempts. And just rinse and repeat until you need to gather more stuff for the humming orbs. Thats the way I am thinking of going myself.

        And in the long run its a hell of alot cheaper than doing cultral (in fact its all free). And as a non-tracker, doing Acrylia will be a nightmare timesink as well (still is if you are a tracker anyways I would guess).


        You are a Paladin, so you are a great class to farm Shadowscream materials from fixed spawn spots. But if your heart is set on Acrylia, I would;

        Windstones = Kill Earth Elementals in T.S, kill Grimlings in the mines in T.M or kill Meeda huns and Crag ligis (more so the Meeda huns) but they can be hard to hunt if not a tracker. All the above are rare drops bar the Meeda huns, which seem to be uncommon drops only

        Essence of Wind = Air Elementals in T.S (this is a good source), some of the alien dudes in T.M.

        Also, remember you need BLOCKS of Acrylia to make the sheets used to manufacture the Acrylia armour. And, Blocks are not a common drop (at least that I have found), so you are looking at combining Large Bricks x 3 into a Block. And on top of that, since you are skilling up on Acrylia you will be doing 1 sheet stuff. And to be honest, I have not noticed a market for that stuff at all. Only for the B.P and Legs, and the odd Helm and Pauldrons....

        For myself, I make Acrylia only for profit, as in I make the Legs and B.P whenever I have enough materials. With that cash I put it aside to help with stocking up on expensive temper components for use later on.

        Comment


        • #5
          Human smithing

          As a human, consider freeport smithing. Mugs of sea foam and saltwater seaweed are both much easier to get than the other limiting ingredients. It is reasonably affordable while still in the 1-sheet trivial range, anyway.

          And, as a rule of thumb, if you don't have the patience to farm shadowscream components, you don't have the patience to become a high level smith by any other available method either.

          Having tried human cultural, shadowscream, sickles, black acrylia(man that's expensive) and acrylia armor, I would be least inclined to skill up via Acrylia armor personally.

          I'm a 60+ enchanter, so your mileage may vary due to availability of enchants, manas, etc.

          Gabantik
          62 Enchanter
          Mithaniel Marr

          224 Smith
          Gabantik - 65 Enchanter - Mithaniel Marr
          JC(M1) 250 . Smithing 250 . Brewing 200 . Fishing 200 . Pottery 200 . Baking 200 . Fletching 200 . Tailoring 157
          Clicking 65536

          Comment


          • #6
            Guess I'll reconsider my stance on Shadowscream, but **** I'd rather sell my items than farm No Rent items. No drop I don't mind, but no rent?

            Acrylia Chain can take you past 210, And since you get Two rings per large brick it's not really a problem, I have more than enough rings and Sheets but lack of Tempers makes it problematic.

            I've looked into that Freeport armor, but the no drop items from TD seems like real pain to get since I cannot track. Guess I'll have to make myself a twink Ranger or Druid or something
            Torm Starbringer
            65th Lord Protector of Erollisi Marr
            Smith at Large

            Comment


            • #7
              ..

              like i said, i was really really REALLY against shadowscream..i lag madly on the moon..so even acrylia seemed like a really crappy option. If you have cultural that wont kill you, its an option..my smith is a wood elf..i have sickles, shadowscream or acrylia...i tried a stack of sickles..20 fails, 0 imps, 7k gone missing from my bank. I tried some acrylia..windstones cost 200-300p on xegony, i've gotten maybe 10 from farming, merchants and a friend in my guild farming acrylia for tailoring..acrylia sucks...shadowscream, once i figured out the war and a druid friend joined me, is EASY to farm the no drop stuff..there has to be over 100 spawns of sonic wolves/owlbears in the south camp once they take it. they are on a 5 minute respawn..you simple cant kill enough to run out. i average 1 substance every 3 or 4 critters, sometimes more. in a 2 hour run i can get almost 200..but thats pulling **** near everything and killing with ae.

              A new thing to add..i had been going to shadeweavers for swirling shadows, and with the exception of one really good day, its very disappointing. Today i tried twilight sea with a druid partner..different druid partner, boy they are everywhere =p To my delight, the first 6 or 8 shadows we killed dropped 1-2 swirlies each! i was floored. and we were killing fairly slow. If i bought 2 or 3 other people out there, we could wipe that island and mop up the swirlies. you should be able to do well there on your own..at 53about half were green, half light blue..saw nothing blue but maybe some of the named ones.

              shadowscream, all in all, is probably LESS time consuming than some of your other options. I actually got an imp last night making a SS bracer, and since my smithing has been stuck where it is for over a year, i was very happy to see "You have improved in blacksmithing!" (197)

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: smithing

                I would definitely go towards the human cultural...assuming you are human. The temper ingredients should be easy to get on the dock at sister island. Just hang out there and fish (you'll need a billion seaweed) and auction to buy mugs of sea foam. I'm not sure how it is on your server, but after a week of buying the things with no competition..people started saving them for me and i'd end up having 300-400 mugs in the bank waiting for seaweed.

                You will need to devote your life to smithing to reach 250. End of story.

                The big money sink in cultural for me is easily the HQ folded sheets at 52 a sheet. Not terrible going through 1 sheet items, but real nasty on 3-sheeters. The bottleneck is on mugs/seaweed/padding and if you can't imbue, then imbued gems.

                Upside? Make really nice stuff for you and friends. Downside? Never make it without spending all your time farming/fishing/combining.

                Whatever you decide, I wish you the very best luck,

                ~Fallwell

                Comment


                • #9
                  I think I have done just about anything and everything that wasn't trivial to get from 188 to 200

                  My take on the possibilities (pre 202). I should also mention that I play on the Rallos Zek server, where if you are killed by another player, they can loot any one item not in your primary, secondary, ranged. As such droppable gear on our server is considerably less than it is on the other servers. (5k for cultural bracers at best I believe) I do have the advantage of being (as far as I know) the only Dwarven smith over 200 (I think, but am not sure, that we have 2 Dark Elves, and 1 Human).

                  1) Cultural

                  As a Dwarven smith, doing imbued cultural was probably the worst option, since we use a Ruby, and selling it back to the merchant I think it was around a 150pp loss just for gorgets. :?
                  I was fortunate enough to be very good friends with an enchanter (/hug Sionar) who spent many many hours with me in shadowhavem enchanting the bricks as I popped back and forth from Kaladim, combining them - love the soulstone). Until the Lava Rock market dried up, this was probably my favorite way, as the cash loss wasn't too great, and I was even able to make a profit on a few breastplates.

                  2) Acrylia

                  I did both Chain and Plate, but I tried mostly to do the breastplates, as they had the best Trader value in the bazaar (2k atm), so I was able to afford the 400-600pp it would cost for the 2 windstones. Any time I made a good chunk of change, or scored some windstones cheap, or off vendors, I would do either bracers (to save on blocks) or Chain BPs (again because they sold ok - ~800). Windstones on Rallos have begun to dry up as well however.

                  3) Shadowscream

                  I really really really hate doing shadowscream. I have had horrid luck with the war, lately people keep setting it so the grimlings are everywhere, and I never remember to log on (nor do I really have the desire to) to camp the war on server up. My skill up rates with it were pretty good, but I had bad luck with the Shadows as well, so I avoid shadowscream as much as I can.

                  Since I got to 201, I have spent my time almost exclusively on Sickles. Because of the RZ pvp ruleset, nodrop gear is very valuable, so the Earring is in high demand by just about anyone not in the top level guilds on our server. I've also done some Black Acrylia now that I am in my teens, but haven't found alot of Acrylia blood out there, so its a supplement along with Acrylia when I find the windstones. I plan on doing Cultural bracers now as well, but probably not very often, as I like to do combines of 10+ when I am looking at a poor success rate.

                  Getting from 201 to 215 has taken me 264 sickles and 25 other combines (BA/SS/AC/Cult), I've successfully made 57 of them. I started this endeavor at around 15000pp, and have managed to increase on it a fair ammount, but again, I started selling them at 5k 2 weeks ago, and have only now dropped down to 3.5-4k depending on my mood, heh.

                  My advice would be to check the prices on the finished products (and the volume) and see if there is something that might work for you. Also check what the components are going for compared to what you will be able to sell for.

                  As Fallwell said, if you decide to smith up, and you really want to do it... that is what you will be doing for a long time. In the past three to four weeks since I started smithing hard, I have gotten about 3 AAs and a half a level, and only raid on Sundays for about 5 hours. If I am on, I am usually imbuing with my druid, getting bricks enchanted, farming merchants for components, farming Traders for components, farming mobs for components, or smithing. It is a very painful and frustrating experience, but (at least for me) very rewarding when I see a skill raise, or make some new item that I have never crafted before.

                  Best of luck on whatever you decide to do

                  Q
                  Queletan Heartforge - House of Sloth
                  Exemplar of the Drunken Bearded Ones



                  ...That which we are, we are,--
                  One equal temper of heroic hearts,
                  Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will,
                  To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yeild.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    I should change my sig, but yes I am a human

                    Fish in OOT? hmm, sounds doable, Thanks for the heads up, I will look more into Freeport armor then , It's fun to smith in a zone where you are max KOS (East and West Freeport )
                    Torm Starbringer
                    65th Lord Protector of Erollisi Marr
                    Smith at Large

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Just a note, When talking about the Old Human cultural, "Field Plate" is Imbued, uses Sea Tempers(no essence of sunlight needed), and is forged in Freeport, "Full Plate" is enchanted with precious metals, uses Royal Tempers(the ones with the sunlight), and is forged in Qeynos.

                      The Freeport armor will not require you to have tracking in any way shape or form. You can either kill Seafurie Cyclopses for the mugs of Sea foam(they are all on one island that you can't move 30 feet without hittting one), merchant mine for them, or buy from players on the cheap. The only No Drop component in the formula(which I think you are refferring to) is the Saltwater Seaweed, which is Fished not dropped off of a mob.

                      Other than the fact that you will have to fish for your tempers, this armor is probably the easiest armor you as a human can make for skillups(unless you want to learn how to do shadowscream which honestly is easier once you figure out the farming methods). Heck you can get to 220ish without even worrying about imbued gems or ever finding an enchanter. And if you are farming SolA or whatever for your ore, you will actually profit from the experience(just on selling all the vendor trash you will get from the farming of HQ ore) without having to worry about selling thing one to another player.

                      But like someone else said, no matter what you do, you will need to devote your life to smithing to reach 250. End of story.
                      Arrakeen Naed'Shoj
                      Smith and Priest of Tunare's Blessings

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Iam doing the Freeport armor for skill up on 226 atm
                        I used to kill for the mugs and /auc for them and the fishing lol
                        I normaly can buy Imbued gems in the bazaar cheap if iam lucky got 30 Imbued planes pebbles for 2p each yesterday .
                        And iam KoS in Freeport too , it makes it a bit of a pain getting molds , just need to be able to run to zone a lot lol , and where the forge is , in the steelwarrior guild no guards go so your safe there
                        Caval Ap`Cadros

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Thats no fun, I'm ally in North Freeport as well, but I enjoy slaughtering the Guards that follow the Evil Sir lucan!

                          Guess I'll be paying those furbies a visit
                          Torm Starbringer
                          65th Lord Protector of Erollisi Marr
                          Smith at Large

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            And, if I recall correctly, they recently changed Saltwater Seaweed from NO-DROP to tradeable, so you could auction for these as well, or just fish 'em yourself with whatever character you wish in OOT. For a Human Pallie, Cultural is now the way to go, as you can get all the way to 242 just on Human Cultural. You may wish to consider faction-fixing to help you smith in Freeport, as you must use the Freeport Forge to make the Cultural, but I suspect faction-fixing may be easier than competing for Shadowscream or acrylia. You need no trackers for this: fish seaweed, kill cyclopses or buy or merchant mine mugs of sea foam, farm or buy leather padding. As for imbued gems, if you don't have an imbuer to do gems for you, look in the bazaar for imbued plains pebbles. Many Karana Druids forage, imbue and sell these for reasonable prices because they are needed to make Lucky Cabbages for the PoTC quest, so you can use these to make imubed Karana "Old Style" cultural for skill. Or perhaps you know a Karana Druid who can imbue raw plains pebbles (usually a number of these are for sale in Bazaar also) for you for a price. Or, you can level your own cleric or shaman to 29 and imbue the gems yourself for whatever deity you prefer (perhaps a Rallos Zek Ogre Shaman to make imbued Jade for when you start making Fierce Heraldic armor).

                            As others have said, if you want 250 smithing, you'll be devoting your EQLife to it for quite a while. My own progression took 2 RL years to get to 250, and I was at 219 when the June 2002 patch went in which changed all the trivials. I did the rest on sickles mostly (some BA and a run of 40 Karana Breasplates ).

                            Regards and good luck on your smithing career,
                            Elmarr Armoursmythe
                            Human Paladin of Mithaniel Marr of 57 Seasons
                            Grandmaster Smith (250), Potter (200), Brewer (200), Fletcher (200), and Jewelcrafter (200)
                            Master Artisan for the ARCH Cabal
                            Saryrn Server

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              I went from 188-225 post-patch doing a mix of freeport cultural and shadowscream. Overall, each method takes the same time, but shadowscream is free. On the other hand, human cultural is more enjoyable, because you don't need to farm, just fish and buy mugs of sea foam. Power-level a shaman or cleric to imbue jade or star rose quartz. Overall I'd recommend cultural until imbued bracers go trivial, then go strictly with shadowscream so you can avoid 2-sheet cultural combines.

                              Human Cultural = easy, enjoyable, somewhat costly
                              Shadowscream = cheap, somewhat hard, endless farming

                              P.S. I hate farming the shades, I mean really, really hate it.

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