Seeking Help for a new smith.

[Wolf73]

I never gave tradeskills in EQ much of a chance in the past, I always deemed them as a huge timesink. But since the addition of the new "ores", cultural armour and energeac items I would like to give smithing a shot.

But I am running into a problem, I used my main to farm up about 200+ pieces of rubicite ore but other than on this site I cannot pull up any of the recipes when I go to a forge. I read in one of the posts here there is a merchant in PoK that sells books for the new items but after searching all of the "smithing" merchants in PoK I am unable to find them. Do you have to be at a certain skill level to purchase these books? Or am I just missing something?

Same goes for the enchanted velium bits recipe, I cannot pull it up at a forge either.. I get Velium bits which is trival at like 21, and velium converstion (mixing two weapons together) and that's about it.

Thank you for any help you can give.

Also I'm very curious as to how you all think I should progress in my skill? Is it still wise to start out with banded then progress from there OR should I start useing the new ores (start with tin and move up from there)??

Thanks again.

[Akenta]

I'm guessing if you've got rubicite ore farming the ores won't be hard for you (I think I've seen one since this whole thing started). The tradeskill books are located near the library entrance, and your skill should show what books are available to buy. You might be able to do some experimenting, but it's so much nicer scribing everything from a book.

I would probably start with the tin ore since that's easy to farm, but if you want to click a lot you can skill up for free in CR or Abysmal Sea til around 54. Don't forget you get your trophy at 50 so it can evolve with you.

Good luck and have fun.

[Wolf73]

Well it's not so much that I farmed the ore, as it was I have been hunting with guildmates and they allowed me to loot it. My main is only lvl 61 so farming the stuff isn't very easy.

I went ahead and started his trade lastnight, 700p later and my smith is now skill lvl 105 off of banded. I'm guessing that is good, but that seems like alot of money for little skill.

I found the trophy quest on alla's site.. Thanks alot for your help.

Thanks for your help.

[Gorse]

I'm guessing that is good, but that seems like alot of money for little skill.

That runs about average. If you think it is painful now, wait until you are doing combines where the parts run $150K each in the bazaar. I did smithing a little at a time, building up parts for runs then doing 50-100 combines at a sitting. With the new cultural items you can collect and save (or buy in the bazaar) and do the same easily. Fortunately there are some skill up paths in cultural that are less painful than others (templates).




Gorse

[Zaltak]

Probally trival to you now but embroiding needles trival at 122 iirc and are not very expensive.The only problem is they don't stack so you have to sell/destroy em.I would for sure go the new cultural route for skill ups.Also save all the sunshard dusts,pebbles,ores you can find.GL:-)

[Sharrien]

Until you get a lot higher, skilling up is mostly a money sink, but there are routes to take that are less painful than others. I skilled up on LDoN armor. The drops aren't as plentiful on the baz as they once were, but many of the pieces tribute for a lot more than what they cost to make, even when buying the drops for the tempers (goblin bones, ice lichen, sand verbena, pondweed and gargoyle granite) instead of farming them. Enchanted velium bits are also a good way to go, there is zero resale value but the velium can be easily farmed from weapons off tizmaks in GD and their cash drops finance a good portion of what you will spend on coldain velium tempers.

Cultural armors are good because the drops are plentiful, but they tribute for just pennies and no one buys them until at least intricate. At the high levels the skill up bonus really helps, but if you are strapped for cash, I would not go out of my to do them until intricate except for drops you farm yourself.

[Wolf73]

Thanks everyone for your help. I understand it isn't going to be cheap, not like fishing. But it will help me pass the time in the game during lulls in the guild.

[Bedazzlerr]

Actually until i hit 180 smithing was very inexpensive as I made the armors and sold them back. It sure lessened the cost over all. Once at 180 and it seems to take more and more combines then it started to get expensive. If you use the old world recipies you dont need to be at a certain skill up to see but if after the new world ones, ie cultural yes you have to be certain levels for them to revel the books to you. Just keep checking the guys that sel the books as they becoem available. Also the guide offered at the bottom of forums is a hugh help as what to do next also.

http://mboards.eqtraders.com/eq/showthread.php?t=30177 and here http://mboards.eqtraders.com/eq/showthread.php?t=30072

[Gorse]

I will secon Enchanted Velium Bits once you have high enough skill. I think it is 185 required skill, but it looks at modified skill not raw, so if you have a Geerlok Automated Hammer (+5% Smithing modifier) or similar item, you can start them even earlier.


As mentioned, you can usually make enough plat while farming the velium to pay for the other parts you need for the combine. Also, don't forget you can break down the Velium weapons the mobs carry into velium components and create more velium.


Another thing to consider, if you are a glutton for punishment (which I am sometimes), if you already have a tradeskill over 200, and don't plan on spending the AAs to "buy" (New Tanaan Mastery) another tradeskill over 200, you can sit at 200 and grind on this recipe to evolve your trophy (to Tier 5) for a +8%. I've done this for lowbie toons that I don't want to have to level up to 51 to buy AAs, but I want them to have as good a chance as possible for combines.




Gorse

[Shadrok]

Cultural Recipes

The cultural recipes can be bought just outside the PoK library. Facing the library entrance, just to the left.

You'll want 2 sets of recipes. The cultural smithing historian will have the ones for the armor and symbols. The tradeskill armor historian the template books. The highest level armor and symbol books (Elegant, Sublime, and Exalted) are on the cultural discoveries historian. All the books are keyed to your smithing, tailoring, and/or tinkering skill levels. That is, until your smithing is high enough, you won't see the Smithing VI book (which I believe is rubicite templates).

And, when skilling at high levels, making symbols is the fastest, because there is a bonus to cultural armor. I like this site
http://ca.geocities.com/daeguardeq/NewCultural.html
for a hasty chart of which ores and loams to use.