What to do about the ore...

[Tildiin]

I have been reading through all the pages here and have gotten some great tips on getting smithing up. Currently at 135. I have been making ornate up to now and am changing to plate. One question that I have and didnt see posted is, Does a block of medium ore drop anywhere, or a small block so I can make it? Or is the only option to buy it for 20pp a block? I dont mind farming items but didnt see any mention on where this drops.

Also did anyone go a different route and not make plate?

Thanks in advance for the help

Tildiin

[Grimina]

No, it doesn't drop anywhere, ya gotta buy. But do not despair, friend! It isn't that bad =) You only lose a little on sellback of successes (to vendors, you MIGHT sell to players, but not easily) And if you fail, it still isn't that bad. Farm for your own padding, and you can get through fine plate without making too huge a dent in your savings. Just keep telling yourself "This is the EASY part" it helps *giggle*

Grimina

[Pojodan]

Fine plate is to smithing like Greyhopper hide armor is to tailoring.. and guess what, the same MoB drops the items you need!
Greyhoppers in MS drop Greyhopper hides 1 out of 3 times and LQ Hopper hides 1 out of 3 times. Drop in the Shadeweavers and whack the larve around in the newbie area for awhile and you've got plenty enough padding.. I made 80 paddings in the period of about 3 hours one day of cleaning up MS and Shadeweavers.

Just note that if you only kill Greyhoppers you'll run the spawn dry after getting about 2 stacks of LQ hides... just come back in awhile and it'll be back to normal. I got lucky as I cleared out all the greyhoppers just before a zone reset, so I cleared them out again!
Greyhopper hides sell in the bazaar for similar to MQ and HQ cat pelts to boot.

[eqNichola]

If you procure your own Leather Padding, you will find that Fine Plate, while it requires a larger POOL of money than Ornate Chain, has a much better sellback rate to merchants. At best prices, and assuming a padding cost of zero, you can sellback a piece of Fine Plate for something like 90% of the cost of materials.