Barbarian Cultural Armor- When is it viable to start making?

[Banuddar]

I am currently a smith with 187 skill, and am searching for the best method to get to 250. While this may sound much like the predicament of 100's of other smiths, my situation is slightly different.

On my server, Innoruuk, there are NO Grandmaster barbarian smiths. I am probably one of, if not the highest barbarian smith on the server. At one point, there was a 250 barbarian smith, but he ebayed and the new owner has little interest in smithing.

This means that if I could start making the barbarian cultural I could sell my merchandise almost instantly (the tribunal plate is extremely nice), and for whatever price I chose (within reason, of course).

I wish I had lots of time to farm components to level up in a more traditional fashion, but I am in a heavy raiding guild and rarely have any free time to do that sort of thing.

Which brings me to my initial question- would it be viable to start making the lower pieces of this armor at my current skill level? What sort of success rate would I expect? And what would I need to sell for to at least break even overall?

[Aethn]

On my server, Innoruuk, there are NO Grandmaster barbarian smiths.

The simple reason for this is that 99.99% of all barbarian warriors are Rallos Zek. Barbarians can only imbue The Tribunal. Within a week every Tribunal Barbarian will buy every piece of armor you make and then never buy from you again.

I know this for a fact because in my first week I sold 300kpp in Helanic armor, that was 7 months ago. I have not sold more then 50k since that week... Total!!

[sir0die]

i'm on Inny, and my skill is right behind ya, plus i got a jump on ya, i've already been farming components.

So, you better hurry up, and get you warez for sale, before i get mine up.




as far as usuning it for skill ups, probably not wise, since all the pieces require a minimum of 1 infused ring (requires celestial temper= 1 blue diamond)

so unless you have a few stacks of blue diamonds in the bank, you might want to look for other things to "skill up" on. I'm not saying don't make them, but to make solely barb cultural for skill ups, is gonna be VERY exspensive.

[Kradlum]

I've had 1 success on ogre cultural in 15 tries between skill 201 and 205. You have a long way to go, so I wouldn't start counting the plats yet.

[Shaman Arriana]

I am actually surprised, since I hit 250, that Helanic armor is VASTLY outselling Artificer's.

There are more Tribunal warriors out there than you might think.

[Banuddar]

1/15.... ouch. =/ Okay, so much for that plan.

Thank you for the help.

[Zopharr]

I'd say wait until 225 + Geerlock before trying any of the BD cultural. Perhaps higher depending on BD prices on your server. Even then, your rate will not be good.

[Meirril]

Wierd question, at what price do BD become worth skilling up?
Currently, you can get the occasional BD for 400pp on Fennin Ro. A good number can be had for 450pp, and you can get all ya want for 500pp.

To make Acrylia plate takes 2 windstones, and those go for the low low low price of 200pp each (ouch!).

While it's possible to farm windstones, your better off trying to farm BDs because THE DROP RATE IS BETTER.

Also to consider, while the success rate on BD cultural items isn't good, the resell value of acrylia plate 1 sheet combines isn't all that good either. So, if your doing this purely for skill...is it insain to try to make cultural armor instead of acrylia plate?

[Kradlum]

I pay no more than 350pp for blue diamonds on AB, and as low as 250, I also try to pay only 50pp per block of velium, max 60pp. It almost makes it worth skilling up onm them, but not quite.

[sir0die]

While it's possible to farm windstones, your better off trying to farm BDs because THE DROP RATE IS BETTER.

ummm, WHERE? where does one go to farm BDs? Is 52 shaman high enought to solo it?

[wold2]

Barb GM smith

You can make it in the high 230s and up with ok sucess. I do better at skill 250 than I did at skill 242 back in June.
ON my server, at least, there isn't a huge market for the plate. The chain isn't as good as it used to be given the PoP armor and drops.

Good luck!

[Canine]

but I am in a heavy raiding guild and rarely have any free time to do that sort of thing

Well if you are in a raiding guild get your self a +15 mod item pay some poor sap to farm the shreaking and wailing substances for you and then sell you the humming orbs and get to 192 on thoes then EE ring your way to 212. With a +15 mod item that will give you 243 skill and you can then take all thoes BD's your raiding guild has aquired and put them into cultural. Worked for several people i know.

[Glatius2]

My experience with skill at 210 +geerlok (I started doing tribunal cultural at skill 212) has been an average of 1 success out of 4 combines. However, this is an average. For example, when doing 12 bracer combines, I end up with 3 bracers although I may have a run of 6 or 8 failures and then get two successes back to back.

Expect to fail and fail frequently. Plan for it accordingly. At 400 pp per blue diamond, I paid 4800 for the 12 BDs. I sold each of the bracers for 5k. You can still make some plat.

[Ishwar]

Your succes should be around (skill-200), where skill is your modified skill. Now if you raid a lot, you should have access to the 15% hammer from XTC, or at the very least the 10% belt from seru. Well in any case you need to skill up to the skill where you can attempt EE rings (220 effective skill, so 192 or 200, depending on what item you have), and then skill up to 212 on those. Then you should be set for making cultural.

[Zhorn]

At max skill (240 + geerlok or 229 + massive girdle or 219 + XTC hammer) I've seen 40% or 42% quoted as the "rough" success figure on BD Cultural armor.

Using the trival/success calculations in the FAQ section I came up with:
(Assuming trival IS around 348-ish - which fits with the reported success rates at max skill).

_Modified_ Skill and Chance (note that it can't be less than 5%).
200 5%
210 5%
220 10%
230 20%
240 30%
252 42%

However, you can get lucky.
I am a 204 skill (214 w/geerlok) Barb Smith and I decided "what the hell I'll make a Plate Bracer" for the warrior helping me pharm stuff to skill up on.

First try.... OMG Helanic Tundra Bracer $$
2nd try.... Fail - ran out of ice goblin blood.

I was extremly lucky. I had a 5% chance.
I doubt I will make any more cultural armor until I am I get MUCH higher skill or score an XTC hammer or +10% belt.

The formula's used are in the FAQ section at http://mboards.eqtraders.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=39

Zhorn Spiritwalker, Prophet
Barb Smith (204)
Tribunal Server