Breaking the 188-200 Barrier

[Winterfury]

Hail, friends! I have been reading for some time, this is my first post. Like many of you and those who have come before us, I seek Mastery of this craft and have been trying to determine the most appropriate path to take. Hitting 188 was relatively easy, but the road from 188 to my current 194 has been ... ugh!

I believe I'm aware of the various paths available to me and I have tried a couple of them. I've done the Shadowscream farming, for example, slow and tedious with far too few skillups for the effort. However, I've been farming the swirling shadows from Shadeweaver Thicket. Perhaps a move to The Twilight Sea would yield better results? I'm a Shaman of 41 winters if that helps answer the question. Will I be able to handle the island alone, or will this require help?

I've also tried the sickle route and have achieved most of my post-188 skillups with these. The costs of course are legendary and these 6 skillups have cost me most of my now-depleted fortune. I'm re-building my financial base now for another run at it, but before I start on that particular quest, I wanted to ask a couple of questions here:

1) I keep hearing about people using geerlocks. This is puzzling. I have a geerlock, but it occupies a spot that could otherwise be used for my WIS. My WIS when fully buffed is 232, and using the geerlock would reduce it to 226. My understanding is that the geerlock would increase my chances of success in forging the item, but it's my WIS that enhances my chances of gaining a skillup. And it's the skillup that I am interested in, not necessarily the item. Sure, I would love to sell the sickles (they are pretty steady at 2k on my server), but given the choice between a skillup and a success, I'll take the skillup thank you. Do I have these relationships understood correctly, or is there another angle I'm missing?

2) Are there other paths between these two extremes (sickles and shadowscream)? I don't mind *some* predictable and productive farming, and my bankroll is coming along nicely enough to enable a modest run at Sickles, but I'd rather pursue somethign closer to the middle of these two.

Thanks for your insights, I hope to see you on the battlefield!

Winterfury Thunderwolf
Shaman of 41 winters

[Zopharr]

Barbarian I presume? (if you mentioned it, I missed it - just guessing from your name). Cultrural is out then (though ogres have imbued cultural plate).

Acrylia skill-ups would be harder to get than shadowscream, IMO. You should be able to handle the islands wioth a friend, but the drop rate is low. It is worth trying as a way to make money, though - spend a day a week getting stuff for acrylia plate to sell, and the rest farming shadawscream.

Depending on the market economy, you may be able to find materials for night terror chain. I don't really recommend it for skilling up - it trivials over 250 and components are expensive - but the trivial is lower than sickles (average is around 90% success at 250) and you *might* be able to lose less money than on sickles. (Though I think you'd still be at a loss to 210 or so).

How many combines do you do in a set? I know it's sheer superstition and (probably) has no real impact on how many combines you need to skill up, but I likes smithing up in sets of 60 or 80 combines so that I was pretty much assured of getting at least one skill-up from the session, barring hell levels. So maybe trying to do skill-ups in increments of 40, while not helping you hit 250 fatser, may at least help morale a bit.

Oh - and spend money on gear to get to 255 fully buffed. The difference in my skill-up rates between 220-230 wisdom and 255 was tremendous - can't recall exactly, but it cut the number of combines I needed by a third or so. At this level, it really pays to get the extra gear (another reason to do some acrylia plate for plat if nothing else).

[EnfinitiStarr8]

Why is Bar Cultural out fo the question? They have it, he could sell it just like all the other races. He might have a fair market for it. Make stuff for Bar Shams.

[Tudani]

Re: Breaking the 188-200 Barrier

1) I keep hearing about people using geerlocks. This is puzzling. I have a geerlock, but it occupies a spot that could otherwise be used for my WIS. My WIS when fully buffed is 232, and using the geerlock would reduce it to 226. My understanding is that the geerlock would increase my chances of success in forging the item, but it's my WIS that enhances my chances of gaining a skillup. And it's the skillup that I am interested in, not necessarily the item. Sure, I would love to sell the sickles (they are pretty steady at 2k on my server), but given the choice between a skillup and a success, I'll take the skillup thank you. Do I have these relationships understood correctly, or is there another angle I'm missing?

The angle you're missing is that you have a higher chance of getting a skillup on a sucess than a failure. I'd recomend for you to spend some pp getting some wis gear to get your wis to 255 buffed with geerlok and also your str to 255 buffed with geerlok (it might not do anything but i like to have both maxed when doing smithing, makes me feel better or something). As far as the cultural route....the barb plate cultural should sell fairly well as a LOT of the higher end warriors use it instead of SS/Kael armor since it's a lot better due to the number of hps. It's viable to sell it if you can afford it, but it would probably be close to as expensive as sickles and would also require farming (or buying some of the dropped components from bazaar). GL to you whichever route you choose.

[Aethn]

Why is Bar Cultural out fo the question? They have it, he could sell it just like all the other races. He might have a fair market for it. Make stuff for Bar Shams.

Hes looking for a skillup route, Barbarian cultural trivials before Fine Steel Plate. Pretty much worthless for skilling up.

As far as the cultural route....the barb plate cultural should sell fairly well as a LOT of the higher end warriors use it instead of SS/Kael armor since it's a lot better due to the number of hps

That would be true for Blue Diamond cultural... except one problem.. 99.99% of all barbarian warriors are Rallos Zek. Barbarians can only imbue The Tribunal armors, again making this a slim to nill market. I have had 3 Helanic BP's up for 15k each and still cant sell them, both Barbarian Tribunal warrior on my server already bought all the armor they need from me months ago.

[Winterfury]

Re: Breaking the 188-200 Barrier

The angle you're missing is that you have a higher chance of getting a skillup on a sucess than a failure.

Is this true? I was aware of this distinction, but had thought the matter settled that the *only* factor affecting skillups was the controlling stat (i.e., INT/WIS/STR) and that the only factor affecting success rate was the skill rate. If you're saying that it's otherwise, I would like to hear some confirmation of this from others and the source of this information, because it runs counter to what I thought I'd read here on this board. But I'd love to hear confirmation because it clearly makes the choice easier.

Barbarian Cultural is indeed available to me, and the new PoP recipes are fairly nice (for those Barbs who worship The Tribunal). The Helanic stuff for Warriors is excellent (mostly 80hp a piece) and the Artificers is excellent for the Barb Shamans (40hp/40 WIS). I'm aiming to make this stuff at least for myself and my wife (Barb Warrior - Tribunal).

Thanks, I look forward to any responses.

Winterfury Thunderwolf - Barbarian Shaman of 42 winters

[Sinuuyanea Nocturne]

The angle you're missing is that you have a higher chance of getting a skillup on a sucess than a failure.

Is this true? I was aware of this distinction, but had thought the matter settled that the *only* factor affecting skillups was the controlling stat (i.e., INT/WIS/STR) and that the only factor affecting success rate was the skill rate.

The second is true and has been proven; the first is also true, as most people who get a raise on a combine got it on a success. The second may be a coincidence, however; because people tend to skill up on things near their skill level, more successes are to be had.

How many combines do you do in a set? I know it's sheer superstition and (probably) has no real impact on how many combines you need to skill up, but I likes smithing up in sets of 60 or 80 combines so that I was pretty much assured of getting at least one skill-up from the session, barring hell levels. So maybe trying to do skill-ups in increments of 40, while not helping you hit 250 fatser, may at least help morale a bit.

Zopharr, all tradeskillers are superstitious, we both know that <img src="http://www.boomspeed.com/sinuuyanea/dcrazz.gif" alt="Now, where is that voodoo doll...">. When I was doing fine plate skillups (back when sheets, pelts, and silks didnt stack, and I had to run from Oggok to Feerrott and gate back with ore, dodging hill giants, through 10 feet of snow, uphill both ways), I always did them in bursts of 200; before, when I was young and foolish, I did combines in groups of 10 or 20. I seemed to get faster skillup rates doing them in large quantities, but it is basically speculation.