HQ Ore

[Mynuvis]

My one and only char is currently a 35 dwarf pally. My wife is a 35 enchanter. I'm trying to raise smithing high enough that I can make the cultural DoN gear and have made it to 122 with little expense.

However it seems the next route is ornate chain (from the Economical Smith guide I found on this site) which calls for a lot of HQ ore. Problem is I'm too poor to be able to purchase this in any great quantity.

So, where are the best spots to hunt for either the ore itself or FS weapons to convert into ore? I spent about 2 hours in Sol A and ended with 5 FS weapons and 2 small bricks, which let me make about 6 rings total.

Is there any better spot to obtain these items from or should I just concentrate on making enough money to buy it outright?

Thanks in advance for the advice.

[Zaltak]

Gnolls in SK drop FS weapons and there are alot of em running around:-)
Also Ice giants in EF drop em and good cash also you and your wife should be able to solo em:-)

[Clamford]

If you aren't too concerned about faction, kill the guards in High Keep. Each one drops a fine steel sword, and at lvl 35 you should get decent xp too. I think there are about 30ish guards on a 26 min spawn timer.

It is possible these guards give a bad faction hit to West Freeport guards, too, so watch the first faction hit message if you try them.

[Kcalehc]

You may well find it's faster to farm other things and plat, sell the other things and buy the ore, than it is to farm things for the ore.

Don't know of anything that you could do at your level but I'm sure there is somewhere that will yeild decent cash returns.

Otherwise, I'm pretty sure I remember a fair amount of FS weapons dropping in Mistmore (from recent vampire hunting outings) plus theres a few not so bad cash loot drops there too (not to mention Gargoyle eyes for aspiring froglok smiths). Probably a little tough solo at 35 though.

[Flehmen]

A note on the economical guide. It has not been updated since before DoN and I do not believe it contains the changes to the price of HQ ore(I believe it jumped from 20 to 50pp or so.) At level 35 FS weapons should start to drop for you fairly regularly.. High Keep is one place to get them but don't limit yourself there. You can find hill giants all over and they are a good source of FS weapons. The Tae ew in Feerrott also can drop quite a few.

Good luck.

[greebmushroome]

way back in the day, i got loads of fine steel weapons from the hill giants in rathe mtns. yes, everyone was farming them for pp at the same time (as was i). ooc'ing for them at a price a pp or two higher than vendors turned up some. other folks would let them rot and would send a tell when one was down. now, i'm inclined to think the hill-giant-farming scene has declined tremendously from its heyday, but you could still farm fine steel weapons from them and get some plat and some xp.

[Kulyen]

Basically any weapon wielding mobs of around 22 or higher can drop FS. The trick is to just find somewhere that has a large number of mobs of the level you can kill easily that drop FS.

Lower Guk is good, dead side. This also increases your faction to do the WE crown quest later.
Outside Caxic Thule on the lizards is another good place, and is outdoors so some people find this easier to hunt, but the mobs are lower level, so correspondingly slower experience.
Inside the house in Unrest.
Permafrost goblins inside the keep.
High Hold Keep is good too, as mentioned, and would be a fairly good duo spot for you I believe.

What server are you on?

[Ishwar]

The amound of FS you get from SolA depends a lot on what part of the zone you hunt. The higher level goblins in the south drops a lot more FS if i recall.

That being said, ornate chain is outdayed as skill up item. You can make cultural needles and sewing kits much easier. There might be other paths, i skilled up too long ago to know.

My suggestion would be to go farm the tizmak caves for weapons, convert them and sell small velium pieces velium in bazaar, to make money for skilling up.

[Mynuvis]

.

Thanks for all the good suggestions everyone.

Kulyen - I'm on the Drinal server.

To everyone who suggested High Hold guards - are there no issues with ruining your faction in HHK, Freeport and Qeynos? We can buy my wife's (enchanter) pet spells before we start so that wouldn't be a problem, but would we regret this decision in 10 or 20 or 30 levels in any way?

As these are our first (and only) characters we've basically been playing it safe and not ruining many factions. If they don't attack us, we don't attack them basically.

Once again, thanks to everyone for their input, hopefully with this advice I can start to advance skilling again.

[Yaldiyen]

Another good place to hunt for stuff to sell at your level would be Crystal Caverns. If I remember correctly, you'd get great exp there and then sell any velium you get in the bazaar.