The Ideal Race, and related verifications

[Pyrrhonic]

I've read the FAQ, and the Dead Horse FAQ, but I wanted some more extensive advice on a couple issues.

I want to take up human smithing. My only human character at the moment is a level 17 bard. I figured he would be great, since he could enhance his strength with songs and has the charisma to not lose as much pp selling things back.

After reading some of the threads here, however, I came across the idea to powerlevel a cleric of Erollisi to 29 in order to utilize his Imbue Star Ruby Quartz and cheaply level up my smithing skill.

Now, I COULD make the bard my smith and PL the cleric up for the imbues, or I could just make the cleric my smith.

As far as I can see, it comes down to whether I can raise the respective character's wisdom or strength to 255 most easily, right? So that's my main question: which is easiest to max (and cheapest, preferably)?

Are there other classes that I should consider to be the smith?

Oh, and one more question: when I made my bard, I put most of his points into Charisma. His main smithing stat is strength, but if I was to remake him, I could give him, easily, 20 more strength. Since he's only 17, this may not be that bad... Should I do it?

Thanks for the advice!

[EnfinitiStarr8]

Well, WHO you want to be the GM Smith is up to you. And just because you are useing the cheepest GEM to imbune does NOT mean it will be cheeper to skull up on, most smiths try and sell there sucesses to recoup there costs. MMarr is the biggest seller followed by RZ (B/c a LOT of races can wear that), so EMarr may not sell, and if you merchent it, then it's selling for maybe 10pp? (Dont know, ever tried to sell it to a merchent) That is a MAJOR loss in plat.
But as far as WIS vs STR to max, STR by FAR is easier. STR gear is a dime a ton, and with even a mid range Sham buff you can get 255 I bet. 255 WIS is not that hard, but can be a lot of plat.
Hope this helps.

[Delfontes]

I have yet to hear of anyone in the game GMing smithing without getting to at least master in a couple other skills.

That would make me think the cleric would be better, wisdom is about the same difficulty to get as str I think, but wisdom will help you in all tradeskills, not just smithing.

[Danthen]

If you only want to do smithing, go for STR gear. If you want to do other tradeskills, get a WIS set.

STR is alot easier to max out then WIS is, for just a few k I put together a set of stregnth gear to get me up to 244 str. (http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=365442) Can get to 255 with some stat food/drink or a small buff.

[Bennan]

I am assuming you are figuring on doing the Imbued Field Plate recipie, if so I believe that the drop rate of the Mugs of Sea Foam have been heavily reduced. So you might want to research that a little as well ( I have noticed a few people on this board comment on it fairly recently). If true, then this recipie will be alot more time intensive than it seems.

Also, you will need a Brewer for your Tempers, for this route.

[ArrakeenNaedShoj]

After reading some of the threads here, however, I came across the idea to powerlevel a cleric of Erollisi to 29 in order to utilize his Imbue Star Ruby Quartz and cheaply level up my smithing skill.

I am the one that suggested it. And I stand by it because of the extreme difference in plat cost when compared to other races. Both the elven (both) and Ogre cultural will REQUIRE an enchanter (extra cost), and the dwarven will require a 100+pp gem for the imbued.

If you buy all of your components from vendors (save of course the saltwater seaweed) you will lose only a little plat selling your immbued product back to vendors. If you farm your own HQ ore (or FS), your own Sea Foam, et cetera, and only buy the mold and gem (and water) from a vendor, you will make a profit in plat selling that imbued armor back to a vendor, and not even have to worry about getting another player involved.

While you are doing that you can often buy imbued gems in the bazaar to make imbued armor to sell for a profit to players.


If you choose to use this method for skillup, it really doesn't matter if you make your bard or your cleric the actual smith, since you only need the cleric for the imbues. I personally would rather have the bard be the smith and use STR gear, potions, songs, and alchohol to easily take your STR to 255. But that's just me.

[Kaysha Soulsinger]

If you farm your own HQ ore (or FS), your own Sea Foam, et cetera, and only buy the mold and gem (and water) from a vendor, you will make a profit in plat selling that imbued armor back to a vendor, and not even have to worry about getting another player involved.

Yes and no. Yes, you gain more plat than you began with. No, if you sold the items you farmed to the vendors right away, you would gain more money than when you process it into the items. Also, farming = time and time = money. Any investment of time can be considered a "cost" you need to invest to get the final product.

While you are doing that you can often buy imbued gems in the bazaar to make imbued armor to sell for a profit to players.

I don't know about other servers, but the only Imbued Gems I ever see for sale on Lanys are:
- Imbued Emeralds (can't be used for Imbued Field Plate)
- Imbued Ivory (again, can't be used for Imbued Field Plate)
- Imbued Plains Pebble (can be used for Karana Imbued Field Plate)

Besides that, on Lanys the Imbued Field Plate market is all but dead. Ever since the Bazaar went live, I may have sold no more than a dozen pieces in total. That's about 2 pieces per month at best.

[Pyrrhonic]

Thanks for all the advice guys, it's been very helpful!

A few more quick questions:

My main happens to be a midlevel brewer (180 or so skill) -- is that enough to manage the tempers, and are any of the temper ingredients no drop?

Also, I'll need to be fishing. If I use the bard and focus on STR, will that mean my fishing will be hard to raise? Also, is the seaweed no drop?

Finally, no one gave me their advice on whether I should reroll the bard to earn him another 15 or 20 strength off the bat. He's only level 17, so maybe this is a good choice? Of course, he may be somewhat gimped if I ever choose to play him as a regular character...

[Cubwynn]

Kaysha, you're not even getting Rallos Zek imbued armor requests?

[Perseverence Rewarded]

The saltwater seaweed has been changed from no drop so your main can do the brewing. No other human cultural components are no drop.
Fishing skill-ups come quickly so that's not a problem. Getting seaweed however is an exercise in patience. Be prepared to sit for long stretches. I actually read a book while fishing. Cast, read paragraph, cast, read paragraph, etc., etc..
As to "rerolling" your bard, thats a personal decision. You can aquire strength items easily enough to get to 255 but the question is do you want to "relevel" back up?

What every you decide I wish you luck.

[mrjimorg0]

Things to ponder

My honest suggestion- dont bother becoming a smith. You have to ask why it is that you want to become a smith. For fun? Well, honestly you'll be spending a TON of time killing greens for components, killing giants for money to finance your smithing, and sitting at a forge just clicking to combine things that you'll be selling for a loss. For money? Well, with a few exceptions (studs, frying pans, etc) smithing will be a money sink. Very very very few smiths ever make back the amount of money they put into it and the amount of money you put into it will be incredible. Also, being low level you cant even farm a lot of the things you would need to in order to skill up cheaply. Are you doing it to get really cool armor? It will be much much cheaper to buy that armor from a smith who already has the skill than to skill up and make it yourself.
-Marie

[Kaysha Soulsinger]

I had one a short while back who wanted a few pieces of Rallos Zek Imbued Field Plate and I made it for him. But for the rest the Imbued Field Plate just sits on my mule eating inventory space. No one buys it, not even to twink (and my prices are actually not too far from cost price - and it just doesn't move).

[Pyrrhonic]

Of course, I'm just a newbie smith, but I think there's a bit of misunderstanding here: of course the Rallos Zek imbued heraldic is in demand, but the field plate is not. Both being human cultural, but the latter being primarily good for skill ups. Right?

And thanks for the continued advice, Perseverence and Arakeen especially.

Marie, though I definitely appreciate your straight-shooting advice, I've primarily decided to become a smith because I want fierce heraldic and a full suit is selling for around 150kpp on my server (RN). Given my option of dropping that 150k on the gear immediately, or putting it into smithing and thus having the ability to make more (and of particular importance, offer the service to my guild), I think the latter is more preferable. Of course, this all depends on whether I can actually stick it out to 250. Which, between us, I'm not entirely confident of.

[Leewei]

Imbues aren't that important to capping your Smithing in the scheme of things. I'd suggest playing a human necromancer or magician and killing seafuries for mugs and cash, then using the cash to buy HQ ore blocks to make into sheets. Also, buy padding from others. You can farm the cash far faster than you can get the paddings.

Regardless of which route you go, level is a huge help when getting components for smithing. Also, high Int, Wis or Str as mentioned in the FAQs. Finally, I'm a big believer in setting your stat at 210 or 240 (either is over the 200 max skill increase stat and has several prime factors) rather than 255 so you don't get too badly burned by streaks (this may be superstition, however).

[ArrakeenNaedShoj]

Yes and no. Yes, you gain more plat than you began with. No, if you sold the items you farmed to the vendors right away, you would gain more money than when you process it into the items. Also, farming = time and time = money. Any investment of time can be considered a "cost" you need to invest to get the final product.

I didn't say it would be the most profitable venture he COULD be doing. I didn't even claim it would be completely profitable for him. I said he could make a 'profit in plat', or more verbosely that he would have more plat when he completed the piece than when he started the piece.

I am perfectly aware that there may be opportunity costs involved. But it is also true that no other Race/Religion even has that much of an option. 'To have more plat when they end than when they begin'. They lose plat on the final sale, along with the same opportunity costs everyone else has, and for Delves, Helves, and Ogres, the additional cost of enchanting minimum of 3 bricks for every combine.

As far as other imbues go, i can't really comment. I occasionally see imbues for almost every god for sale in the Bazaar on MM. The only one I see on a regular basis are Emeralds (coz I sell them). But even if you only see a guy with one imbued diamond or 'whatever the rallos gem is', you could send him/her a tell inquiring about more.