New Smith? ... maybe ...

[Catamander]

So, I've been sitting at 162 skill for a loooong time and finally am seriously considering working my way up to GM smithing, but I have a few questions that I am hoping a more seasoned smith might answer.

If this looks doable, I will pick up some of the tradeskill AA, but which ones in which order are most important? I've maxed out the vital tank AA so I can spend a dozen or so AA on tradeskill stuff without a pinch right away and maybe earn a few more along the way.

I have about 140k pp that I could spend on this endeavor. About how far should I expect that to get me? 355 str., RNG treats me about average.

My goal here is to get up to be able to make some GM Snowborn for myself. How high should I go before I try GM armor, assuming I farm my own scales?

Thanks very much to all for the info.

-Catamander Zeno
-Fennin Ro

[Angelsyn]

With farming, you should easily be able to get a very good level in Smithing.

Salvage 3 will be your best friend... I wish I could get it myself, but I just don't have the time to xp.

Around 250-ish skill with Mastery 3 & Trophy will net you the "capped success rate" level with GM armour. Without Mastery 3, a skill of ~290 + Trophy is your target.

Hit 200 skill (at least) before you do the new Trophy quest, IMHO. You may even want to wait until after the patch on the 14th to do the quest.

[Zaltak]

EVB's till 222 then Shadowscream untill it trivals 262 iirc:-)

[Catamander]

Thanks much! I'll pick up the Salvage AA and get started on EVBs soon and crawl my way up to 250 while earning the Mastery AA. I expect it will take me a few weeks at least to carve out the time to do the skillups, but I'll be much happier making my own rather than having to hunt down a smith and pay them 140k for a BP, when I could be spending that being able to learn a useful skill!

-Catamander

[andyhre]

Depending on your race, some cultural recipes from 222 onward make sense. I found the farming for Yttrium Ore (esp. in the bazaar) to be easier, given my schedule, than Shadowscream or some of the other options. At 290, I then found Mistletoe Cutting Sickles to be tolerable, esp. since I sold them at 2/3 of my cost and they moved quickly.

[crystilla]

There's the quick (expensive) way and there's the longer (but far cheaper) way.

Quick/expensive - Mistletoe Cutting Sickles (everything is vendor purchasable except you do need to get emeralds imbued).

Longer/cheaper - shadowscream (but don't do this past 262 unless you like being insane or swirling shadows are a huge drop on your server). I actually made money when I sold the shadowscream armor to the vendor because I farmed 100% of my own ingredients that were farmable.

And like someone said, definitely do the EVBs's during the time that you can.

[Gorse]

I have Salvage 2 on my enchanter, I I cannot say I am impressed. In my opinion you get a lot more out of the Mastery series and I would recommend starting with them first.

[Angelsyn]

I have Salvage 2 on my enchanter, I I cannot say I am impressed. In my opinion you get a lot more out of the Mastery series and I would recommend starting with them first.

I mainly mention Salvage for people who intend to do more than just make armour for themselves.

Yeah, it doesn't fire off all too often... but when you Salvage that Metallic Drake Scale, or that GM Sheet metal, you're going to be very glad you had it!

[Ishwar]

Since you are a barbarian, try getting a group to help you get the 10% belt from seru. This will allow you to make eartheral rings from 200-212. No idea on the cost of making velium, but you can farm your own.

From there on juts power your way using sickles to 250. Even if you juts tribute them yourself for lots of nice trib points, you can still get around a skil per 5k which should get you the 250 or so skill you will need for max succes with masterry 3. For 15 points salvage3 if nice, and if you do sickles the extra components saved on all the failed subcombines is nice.

An alternative for barbarians is to lookg for essence of winter, ivory and blue diamonds in the bazaar, this allows you to make helanic tundra boots. Because of the high trib value on these can normally sell around cost or more, depending on the market for tribute items on your server.

[Grolyn]

While MCS is easier since it's all vendor bouhgt I'd suggest shadowscream instead. Much cheaper plus with the trophy quest the owlbear or sonic wolves have been up more often than usual so you may not need to pop the war. I was able to get the whole hollowshade to myself the other night killing sonic wolves in mass averaging 1 and 1/2 stack per hour.

Do the shadowscream part way first before doing mcs it'll shave a lot off of your expenses.

[Sharrien]

If you have access to GoD drops cheaply, make GoD weapons. Claws/cestus are the best sicne they use less material. Yes, velium is expensive, but you can sell the weapons back to the vender for nearly what you spend on the raw materials.