Bad luck or am I missing something?

[Lindera]

I am 300 in smithing, with my trophy at 12%. I have tried 7 combines now on the Extravagant Darktouch bracers. 7 failures. Is getting the trophy to 15% going to really be a requirement to make a full suit of this armor, or did I just have a string of bad luck?

[Jinaabu3169]

Do you also have all of the associated AAs like smithing mastery, salvage etc? They can make a big difference. Other than that, I think it is just crappy luck. The diffence between 12% and 15% is 9 points, so I can't see success being substantially better with max trohy.

[Lindera]

Yes I have all 3 ranks of Blacksmithing Mastery and all 6 ranks of Salvage maxed. I was just concerned that the 15% would put me over some magic threshold that would reduce my failures.

[Drazzminius]

I was just concerned that the 15% would put me over some magic threshold that would reduce my failures.

Nope....

[Aldier]

What exactly are you trying to make? There does not appear to be any Darktouch armor.

Dreadguard is the name for Dark Elf Plate armor, in which the bracer is trivial of 498.

Punching that into the calculator quickly, at 300 skill, 12% mod, mastery3, is a 57% chance of success. Upping to the 15% mod would improve that to 61.5% chance of success.

7 just sounds like a bad run or maybe forgetting to equip the trophy on some of the attempts.