Frustration with skilling up

[Abazagaroth]

Bad luck happens. I'm at 1 skill up in 700 combines. Really frustrating sitting at 298 smithing.

[Lillanu]

I hope you're exaggerating with 700... that's terrible

[Bolas]

Well.. as an ogre, master's smithing isn't all that great. pile of gravel is needed, and those are about 5k each in the bazaar, IF you can even find them for sale.. which there are currently ZERO for sale on povar.

-Bolas

[Abazagaroth]

Nope, not exagerating. And after the 400 MCS combines I did, with all those CE combines, I'm never touching another again. I'll stick to BD cultural, less clicking and better resale, so better off all around even if I am having bad skill up luck.

Got another 150 blue diamonds, hoping that will get me the last 2 points I need when I get time to use them =P

[Droogie MalC]

Gravel?

ROFL easy farming for your ogre goodness... its real easy, make sure you have a way to gate or prep to camp and logback in later with origin... but the hole (old paineel) is fast and easy gravel... even if your a gimp lvl 50
Be happy your not the cursed *iksar/troll* or the semi cursed *half elf*

[Droogie MalC]

Stats and skillup.

KyrosKrane you are forgeting that all but fletching, makepoison and smithing (the 3 that have alternate stats) are minus 15 from the stat...

Also where do you get the info that research is difficulty rating 1 ?

Weee O look owlbears, I'm gonna set them up their own wailing wall....
MalC the Mad

[KyrosKrane]

KyrosKrane you are forgeting that all but fletching, makepoison and smithing (the 3 that have alternate stats) are minus 15 from the stat...

I thought I accounted for that, but apparently I didn't. OK, so add 15 to each of the figures above. =)

[Minyeni]

Dang. Sony hates rangers (ranja down!), hates Tunare worshippers (no good fletching skillups at high level), and hates half-elves (painful cultural now, used to be no cultural at all).

Minyeni Footinmouth, half-elven Tunare-worshipping Ranger

[Beafly]

Anyone have any information on the drop rates for the teeth for Froglok Master's DoN armor? I've recently hit 222 and was thinking to use DoN Master's to continue but have had a pretty horrible experience with camping them thus far (1 drop in in 30 kills in Nightmare so far + 6 spawns + 12 min re-spawn + crap exp + 20k baz price = unhappy smith). Aparently the teeth can drop in PoEarth and Veeshan's Peek also. I can probably solo the Earth crocs, but it will be much slower and I don't have access to VP. Any advice?

[Lillanu]

Anyone have any information on the drop rates for the teeth for Froglok Master's DoN armor? I've recently hit 222 and was thinking to use DoN Master's to continue but have had a pretty horrible experience with camping them thus far (1 drop in in 30 kills in Nightmare so far + 6 spawns + 12 min re-spawn + crap exp + 20k baz price = unhappy smith). Aparently the teeth can drop in PoEarth and Veeshan's Peek also. I can probably solo the Earth crocs, but it will be much slower and I don't have access to VP. Any advice?

If I were you, I'd do ShadowSCREAM/Master's Sybols till (I think) 269, then MCS(Mistletoe Cutting Sickles)/Master's Symbols till 300. You can always toss in some Magnetic, Bazu, or BD Cultural armor too

[Beafly]

I was under the impression that there was no Froglok Cultural other than DoN. Was I mistaken?

Are the master's symbols that much easier than the armor pieces?

[Nolrog]

MCS is a decent skillup choice for bulk combines at skill 227, but realize that you'll fail a LOT on them, and failing reduces your chance at a skillup pretty significantly, depending on your prime stat. You're also looking at a cost of 350pp or so per attempt, and depending on your local server market, you may not even be able to sell successes to players.

That's true, but they tribute well. My guild leader did the sickles to max out his skill, and the guild has been at max tribute ever since (and that was a while ago.)

[Queletan]

I was under the impression that there was no Froglok Cultural other than DoN. Was I mistaken?

Are the master's symbols that much easier than the armor pieces?

I don't know about non DON cultural (the Blue Diamond stuff) but I don't think frogloks have one, could be wrong tho, just my guess.

The symbols for a frog are going to be alot easier, since froglok master armor takes the reptile teeth, which are incredibly rare (many posts to this effect and other drop rates as well, not the point here). From a cost/availability standpoint, Master augs are basically your only option at that level of DON armor. My friend is a 295 froglok smith and has yet to make a piece of master armor that I am aware of.

Q

[KyrosKrane]

Frogloks don't have cultural other than the DoN stuff. Absor once made a statement in error that frogloks had a complete set of cultural (before DoN came out) just waiting to be pushed live, but when he checked, he found he was wrong.

[Leana]

I skilled up over time while making a profit on stuff. If you are patient and use the bazaar, you can make a profit while skilling up.

Here are some recipees I did not like:

• I did very few MCS, though I made a few stacks and sold them in the bazaar at basically break even prices. I will amend this by saying that I did lots of MCS early on because... my friends and I made a business early on for the earring. We made all the parts and walked other players through the quest. We charged a fair profit on our server and had people standing in line to buy the earrings. I also sold MCS on the side for 5,000 each. That basically covered my early costs of skilling up on them. After that craze, I did not make many MCS.
• I also tried shadowscream, but hated it, as I was doing it when part was nodrop and the other part was no rent.
• I also tried GOD weapons, but the recipees are ultra annoying with tons of combines. I chose to ignore them.
• I did not use enchanted velium bits to skill up. I mention them here as I did not use them since I was past 222 when they were introduced. However, if you do not raise your skill to 222 on these, you are insane. It is trivial to farm enough velium to raise your skill when you compare to other methods of skilling up.

Here are recipees I used to skill up:

• bazu up to 282 depending on piece: I buy blood for 1,500 and sell for what the market will bear.
• magnitic up to 282 depending on piece: I buy broken pieces at 1,500 per sheet and sell for what the market will bear.
• muramite chain links and muramite metal sheets 282: I buy at 9,000 and sell at 12,000. There are also tailoring recipees that take advantage of this.
• Tae Ew chain armor up to 295 depending on piece: In the old days, I used to sponsor guild raids in CT. I would make a piece of armor for everyone that went to be used on their main or an alt. I used the rest of the Tae Ew blood to make armor and shields for sale in the bazaar. I have since farmed CT on multiple occasions. The farming is slow, but I am now able to solo CT fairly affectively.
• white gold inlays up to 300: I buy dust of discord at any reasonable price and sell at 5,000 currently. I am thinking of raising my price, due to the fact that the inlays sell instantly at that price. The price I am able to get and my desired profit determines my purchase price.
• blue diamond cultural armor 300: I did a fair bit of making this. I still have a bag full of diamonds, as I planned to return to finish up with it. The truth is that it has a lot of combines, more than better more recent recipees. It is still good, though the armor is mostly good for tribute now. It is not my favorite path.
• master armor up to 300 depending on piece: I farm my own yttrium (ugh) while helping friends camp the wand. Master armor has a 5% bonus on skill ups making it quite attractive. I sell it for about 1,500 per main piece.
• master symbols up to 300 depending on piece: I farm the shissar scales (easy) and buy CDDs in the bazaar for 4,000. I sell the symbols for 10,000. 5% bonus makes this attactive.
• GM armor 300: I have to admit that I made very little of this. The armor is a slow seller and is fairly restrictive in use within my race, so I went for the symbols. GM armor has a 10% bonus to skill up chances. I basically buy scales for low market price and sell armor for 40,000 per sheet in the recipee.
• GM symbols 300: I made hundreds of these. I keep up to 20 for sale at a time in the bazaar. They are not race or religion specific (to make), so you can make up lots and keep a variety for sell. I buy for up to 20,000 and sell for 40,000. It also enjoys the 10% bonus on skill ups. Special note, I also make symbols using tailoring.
• bazu, discordant, and chronal seals 300: They are easy to make. No other smiths on my server recognized just how good these were for skilling up. Early on, I could easily buy the steel in the bazaar for under 300 each. That meant I could make the seals for under 900. That is a key point, for while I have never sold a single seal to another player, vendors buy them for somewhere between 900-1,000. In the end, when I was working towards finishing off smithing, I was willing to pay up to 450 each for the steel. I made around 100 of these before I made master. I'd like to also note that these appear to have a bonus to skilling up. The tailoring side works as well, but someone discovered the crack and are willing to pay a lot more than I am to be able to skill up. The hides and silk now sell for over 1,000 on my server. I get dribbles from the bazaar for prices I am willing to pay.

Basically, I have gone all the way to 300 without grinding, and I made a huge profit along the way. It was time consuming, as I often can purchase materials for only 1-5 combines in a day, but persistance has it's own reward. I also want to note that I used a lot of combines that have bonus skillup chance. That makes skilling up much less painful. I read where someone had 700 combines for a single skill up. I never had anything near that bad a run and my last three skill ups took only 13 combines.

I hope this information is helpful.