Skilling up w/ PoP Armor?

[Nilwene]

An end to making shadowscream armor is finally in sight and I have been thinking of what to do next to get smithing to 300. It seems most people do mistletoe cutting sickles and I'm sure I will do plenty of those. I also have enough components saved up for about 50 old bd cultural combines which will probably get me 2 skill-ups if I am lucky. I can't see tae ew being the next step because the blood just isn't dropping much for me these days.

What about PoP armor? My guild is currently farming elementals and just 1 fight from Time and we are looting components for farwater and windessence plate etc. I am wondering if this stuff is worth bothering with. Has anyone gotten a decent amount of skill-ups making this stuff or is it just another armor set that has one or 2 components so rare that you could never make enough of the stuff to advance your skill? I do see the components drop quite a bit on raids, but I have no idea if they could be farmed in large quantities.

-Izzabeau TheRed
Lost Fires
lvl 70 Shaman of the Tribunal

[Angelsyn]

I made a fair amount of Livestone & Inferno plate during my skill-up run. But then, I bought all my supplies.

Given what I've seen in the Bazaar... Windessence isn't a good route, since Wind Metal seems to be rather rare.

I would recommend Livestone & Inferno Plate/Chain. Also, Nightmare & Storm Plate/Chain can get you to 295. Plus you can kill Giants in PoStorms and help increase the supply of Storm Volaas Hair.

[tuis]

If the guild is farming the places and willing to hook you up with the stuff to work your skill (perhaps in return for mad guild tribute donations), then go for it, take it all.

Otherwise, just blow plat on Mistletoe sickles.

[Phantron]

I thought all the higher end PoP armor requires at least a vial of purified mana which alone is more expensive than the cost of sickles. Unless you plan to tribute/sell this stuff you might as well just go with sickles.

[tuis]

Assuming no fails, each sickle runs around 300pp each - mostly from the ruby, sapphire, and 4 emeralds per attempt.

[KyrosKrane]

True, but consider that PoP elemental armor is all but guaranteed to sell for at least a few Kpp, which means your net cash flow should be positive if you're getting the components from raids. If you buy your components, my experience is that you will more or less break even in today's market, but of course, your mileage will vary.

[Dalmoth]

For every component you get on your own, vs. bazaar bought your better off doing PoP armor. Though I wouldn't sink a fortune into at any one time. I honestly think about the best thing to do would be to find an upcoming smith and pay them to do the subcombines on sickles. They get skill up potential without any real cost outlay, you get out of the subcombines.

That being said, farming CT for tae blood I will typically get 4-5 vials per clear of the courtyard and a few ancillary pulls (about 20 lizards in all). My limit though for farming is normally about 40 lizards before something else comes up I need to do.

[Zaltak]

Temper materials are too rare for PoP armors to be a skill up path.I'd stick to mag armor or CT IMHO:-)

[tuis]

I'm having a helluva time getting a steady flow of Iksar blood, that's why I went the sickle route. 289 skill atm and just finished stocking up the mules for what I hope will be the final push. I've been keeping guild tribute maxed so I havent caught too much hell for the missed raids, my own tribute is maxed, my twink's is maxed, and I've been able to sell them off as tribute items in the bazaar as well. Nowhere near enough to cover all costs, but enough to keep the machine moving forward.

[Dalmoth]

Iskar blood is by far the limiting factor for me as well. Right now however, I'm the only buyer in the bazaar for it so I set a moderate price and it seems to be enough to get people to sell it. On average I get about 10 a week, so whenever I get the chance to farm Tae Ew Blood Vials, I've got the rest ready to go.