Whats the Cheapest Path?

[Nolrog]

Anyway, back on the main topic... once gold ornate chain is trivial, I'd seriously think about skipping fine plate and doing LDoN plate instead. It's all storebought, except for the temper ingredient... and unlike fine plate, that requires you to farm pelts AND spiderling silk for the padding, the only thing that has to be farmed for LDoN plate are the temper ingredients.

I disagree with this. LDoN temper ingredients are either very expensive, or slow to forage. I was getting about 15-20 of them in an adventure with my ranger, clicking the forage button every time it refreshed. The other problem is that you cannot go in there solo (at least not yet.) You can always farm pelts and silks solo when you have time. The shadeling silks are abundunt and the hopper pelts are pretty frequent to make padding that way instead. The biggest benefit from doing LDoN is that you will also be getting some XP as you forage. And of course, this is only viable for a class that can forage.

[Tweedledea]

There is still a decent market in gothic and sandblasted plate, so I wouldn't rule out making it. You can pick up the temper components on vendors sometimes... or ask your friends to save them for you... or just take up residence in Rujark and rake in the goblin bones (forfeiting other cash loot if necessary)

[Zeralenn]

The drop rate of temper ingredients is so low in LDoNs that I certainly would not count on it. My cleric does a LOT of LDoNs. In most dungeons, we get no temper ingredients, and the most I have ever gotten in one dungeon was 4 pondweed in a recent Deepest Guk dungeon. I don't know what the forage rate is on these so I cannot comment on that.

Given how difficult it is to get temper ingredients, and how comparatively easy it is to get leather padding if you use LQ rockhopper pelts with shade silk thread, and the dearth of options above 188, I would not recommend touching LDoN armor til you have trivialled fine plate. Fine plate is not that bad cashwise for sellbacks -- use your geerlok.

...Zera

[Tweedledea]

Sure... that's all true - but I suggested ldon (that you can sell in the bazaar at a profit) as a 'cheap path'

[burnttoastv]

Made a karana worshiping human ranger to smith with when playing with friends on a server other then where my high elf 250 smith resided.

Hitting 122 skill I was able to make it to 188 in 2-3 hours. I had invested 2k into getting str gear getting it to 178, and had a shammy cast a str buff on me to get it over 200, usually getting it to 210, sometimes 220 with drunken smithing. The cost of steel arrowheads (not blessed) for the Karana cultural cost me 1.7k. I financed all of this through farming padding since I'm poor on the Quelliuous server, as my lvl 50ish smith is on Drinal.

*sigh* Now to lvl from lvl 9 to 50ish to go farm Seafuries to keep lvling up with seatemper.