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This is hands down the fastest way possible to raise smithing skill from 188 to 250.
You need to be a 55+ pet class for this. (ench dire charm will do). Sorry meleers you won't be going light speed; more like bicycle speed. This will still be the fastest way to get from 188 to 250 for any class; you just gotta figure out how to mass slaughter green cons.
First you need to do the shar vhal anvil and hammer quest. That is the only annoying part of starting this off. I wont go into detail on that, if you cant figure out how to look up quests then yer obviously not equipped with mental capacity for going 188 to 250 light speed.
Step one get your hammer and anvil from the quest. Get a couple pet weapons (1hs, piercing, 1hb)
Step two go to hollowshade moor from shar vhal (just the next zone over). Go south and see if owlbears or sonic wolves have taken over the southern islands. If they have, yer home free... If not you need to find the grimling chieftain up on the hillside and kill the defenders when an owlbear or sonic wolf attack happens.
Before you start farming in mass quantities, hand your pet a couple 1h weapons (mages are lucky in this department). I personally save a few spiny weapons from camping shadows later on in this thread for use here.
DO NOT TRY TO GET ANYTHING FROM THE YARD TRASH ANYWHERE BUT ON THE 4 SOUTHERN ISLANDS WITH HUTS IN THE MIDDLE OF THEM!!!
... Even the hill where the named mobs spawn by the 4 islands in the south have terrible drop rates (like one in a hundred elsewhere, one in twenty on the hill).
You will be killing either owlbears or sonic wolves on the little islands surrounded by water in the south eastern corner of the zone. This is the fast part. Mobs on these islands near the huts drop your smithing items at about a 25 percent ratio, which is nice because your pet will go through them like a paladin epic through butter.
IF ( owlbears are on southern island )
.......Then Farm 100 wailing substances and kill the owlbear defenders when the sonic wolves try to attack when you've had enough.
Repeat for sonic wolves, same spawn area.
Step 3 You have about 100 wailing substances and 100 shrieking substances. If not, see step 2. Start running to Twilight Sea. (north thru grimling and tenebrous, then west thru katta)
Step 4 You are in twilight sea, as you enter twilight sea you are on a ramp exit from katta overlooking the sea. Diagonally to the left you will see an island just to the left of the one straight out. (look for the island with lesser and greater shadows) You will be killing shadows there for a very very long time, so get used to it... hell time it... farm 10 mins kill everything; take a few mins break for respawn. You get the idea... get your farm on... theres about 15 to 20 spawns on that island with like a 12 min spawn. Assuming you kill them at a reasonable pace they would be up at a decent enough number again about 4 mins after you shadowcide.
You need about 80 swirling shadows each trip to twilight sea. Do not bother to farm more each trip because they are no rent (they will disappear if you log for more than 25 minutes)
Step 5 Make some metal bits. (large brick of ore, file, flask of water)
yield 2 per success so assuming you got your 188 skill you wont fail much.
Make a stack or two of these depending how much room in your packs you have to work with. (leave about 7 or 8 slots for water and molds.)
Step 6 Buy a couple gauntlet molds (same ones for medium banded recipe) These steps go fast in shar vhal at the forge area. The water and ore can be bought within a building or two.
Step 7 procedure for combines.
-- Put hammer and anvil in forge.
-- Add a wailing substance, shrieking substance, and metal rings.
-- Combine. (trivial 168) If you succeed you get a humming orb which is not stackable.
---Immediately put the humming orb back in the forge along with your hammer and anvil.
---Toss the banded gaunts mold, 2 swirling shadows, and flask of water in the forge as well.
---Combine. (trivial >250) You can use same recipe using boots mold if you wish, but it doesn't really matter. I personally found it annoying having to sell back the boots to vendor for 2pp rather than just keep going and back to farming to skillup. (ie fail on gloves on purpose to keep going)
repeat selling gaunts to vendor and buying back molds at the same time. (shar vhal vendor nearest the forge)
Go back for more swirling shadows till you've used up the bulk of your wailing and shrieking substances. Then repeat from step 2 till you hit 250 skill. If someone is camping the shadows just go back to step 2 for a few hours till they are gone. Try to open a communication channel with the camper so they know that you would like the shadows. (Sometimes you get lucky and you can buy swirling shadows off people camping named mobs)
Trust me i've tried everything else as a barbarian shaman, and there is NO other easy skill raiser other than shadow scream and human cultural.
This may be a huge slowdown from fine plate, but when you realize this farming method takes you all the way to 250 in a paced fashion you will be glad you tried this way.
read my writeup on eqbeastiary.allakhazam.com under the hollowshade moor section about the war (tm) if you need help manipulating the war to get sonic wolves or owl bears in the south.
assuming you get at least 100 combines a day (4 to 8 hours depending on your lethargy) you should skillup an average of 5 times a day. Don't expect more than one or two skillups your first couple days starting this. The skillups come fast with long sessions of farming the same mobs and combining with your surplus of wailing and shrieking substances...
If you do this right you will get about
50 wailing substances an hour if owls on southern.
40 shrieking substances an hour if sonic wolves on southern. (they heal, run, etc... just basically more annoying)
You will get about 30 to 35 swirling shadows in twilight an hour if you are killing them fast (4 sets of complete slaughters an hour approx)
I am interested to see people who have a lvl 62+ char using this method compare their average combines per day starting at day 3 when they get the hang of this.
If its at least 100, you are doing it right. If its not, maybe smithing is not for you. If you are getting 150+ combines a day, I am jealous of you and grats on your 250 skill in a few days.
Sorry if it seems as if I talked down upon anyone during this posting; its just kinda a obsessive personality thing =). I hope this helps you high skill raisers.
You need to be a 55+ pet class for this. (ench dire charm will do). Sorry meleers you won't be going light speed; more like bicycle speed. This will still be the fastest way to get from 188 to 250 for any class; you just gotta figure out how to mass slaughter green cons.
First you need to do the shar vhal anvil and hammer quest. That is the only annoying part of starting this off. I wont go into detail on that, if you cant figure out how to look up quests then yer obviously not equipped with mental capacity for going 188 to 250 light speed.
Step one get your hammer and anvil from the quest. Get a couple pet weapons (1hs, piercing, 1hb)
Step two go to hollowshade moor from shar vhal (just the next zone over). Go south and see if owlbears or sonic wolves have taken over the southern islands. If they have, yer home free... If not you need to find the grimling chieftain up on the hillside and kill the defenders when an owlbear or sonic wolf attack happens.
Before you start farming in mass quantities, hand your pet a couple 1h weapons (mages are lucky in this department). I personally save a few spiny weapons from camping shadows later on in this thread for use here.
DO NOT TRY TO GET ANYTHING FROM THE YARD TRASH ANYWHERE BUT ON THE 4 SOUTHERN ISLANDS WITH HUTS IN THE MIDDLE OF THEM!!!
... Even the hill where the named mobs spawn by the 4 islands in the south have terrible drop rates (like one in a hundred elsewhere, one in twenty on the hill).
You will be killing either owlbears or sonic wolves on the little islands surrounded by water in the south eastern corner of the zone. This is the fast part. Mobs on these islands near the huts drop your smithing items at about a 25 percent ratio, which is nice because your pet will go through them like a paladin epic through butter.
IF ( owlbears are on southern island )
.......Then Farm 100 wailing substances and kill the owlbear defenders when the sonic wolves try to attack when you've had enough.
Repeat for sonic wolves, same spawn area.
Step 3 You have about 100 wailing substances and 100 shrieking substances. If not, see step 2. Start running to Twilight Sea. (north thru grimling and tenebrous, then west thru katta)
Step 4 You are in twilight sea, as you enter twilight sea you are on a ramp exit from katta overlooking the sea. Diagonally to the left you will see an island just to the left of the one straight out. (look for the island with lesser and greater shadows) You will be killing shadows there for a very very long time, so get used to it... hell time it... farm 10 mins kill everything; take a few mins break for respawn. You get the idea... get your farm on... theres about 15 to 20 spawns on that island with like a 12 min spawn. Assuming you kill them at a reasonable pace they would be up at a decent enough number again about 4 mins after you shadowcide.
You need about 80 swirling shadows each trip to twilight sea. Do not bother to farm more each trip because they are no rent (they will disappear if you log for more than 25 minutes)
Step 5 Make some metal bits. (large brick of ore, file, flask of water)
yield 2 per success so assuming you got your 188 skill you wont fail much.
Make a stack or two of these depending how much room in your packs you have to work with. (leave about 7 or 8 slots for water and molds.)
Step 6 Buy a couple gauntlet molds (same ones for medium banded recipe) These steps go fast in shar vhal at the forge area. The water and ore can be bought within a building or two.
Step 7 procedure for combines.
-- Put hammer and anvil in forge.
-- Add a wailing substance, shrieking substance, and metal rings.
-- Combine. (trivial 168) If you succeed you get a humming orb which is not stackable.
---Immediately put the humming orb back in the forge along with your hammer and anvil.
---Toss the banded gaunts mold, 2 swirling shadows, and flask of water in the forge as well.
---Combine. (trivial >250) You can use same recipe using boots mold if you wish, but it doesn't really matter. I personally found it annoying having to sell back the boots to vendor for 2pp rather than just keep going and back to farming to skillup. (ie fail on gloves on purpose to keep going)
repeat selling gaunts to vendor and buying back molds at the same time. (shar vhal vendor nearest the forge)
Go back for more swirling shadows till you've used up the bulk of your wailing and shrieking substances. Then repeat from step 2 till you hit 250 skill. If someone is camping the shadows just go back to step 2 for a few hours till they are gone. Try to open a communication channel with the camper so they know that you would like the shadows. (Sometimes you get lucky and you can buy swirling shadows off people camping named mobs)
Trust me i've tried everything else as a barbarian shaman, and there is NO other easy skill raiser other than shadow scream and human cultural.
This may be a huge slowdown from fine plate, but when you realize this farming method takes you all the way to 250 in a paced fashion you will be glad you tried this way.
read my writeup on eqbeastiary.allakhazam.com under the hollowshade moor section about the war (tm) if you need help manipulating the war to get sonic wolves or owl bears in the south.
assuming you get at least 100 combines a day (4 to 8 hours depending on your lethargy) you should skillup an average of 5 times a day. Don't expect more than one or two skillups your first couple days starting this. The skillups come fast with long sessions of farming the same mobs and combining with your surplus of wailing and shrieking substances...
If you do this right you will get about
50 wailing substances an hour if owls on southern.
40 shrieking substances an hour if sonic wolves on southern. (they heal, run, etc... just basically more annoying)
You will get about 30 to 35 swirling shadows in twilight an hour if you are killing them fast (4 sets of complete slaughters an hour approx)
I am interested to see people who have a lvl 62+ char using this method compare their average combines per day starting at day 3 when they get the hang of this.
If its at least 100, you are doing it right. If its not, maybe smithing is not for you. If you are getting 150+ combines a day, I am jealous of you and grats on your 250 skill in a few days.
Sorry if it seems as if I talked down upon anyone during this posting; its just kinda a obsessive personality thing =). I hope this helps you high skill raisers.