Death to fine plate!

[Morgrist]

Finally hit 188 on my very last padding last night. Miracles DO happen.

Onwards to field plate visors and such...Hollowshade Moor on FV is grimlings all over until the next reset.

(Seafoam and seaweed till I EXPLODE.)

[Zeralenn]

Grats on hitting the wall

You hate FP now, but you'll be looking back on it fondly in no time.

...Zera

[Bennan]

Hehe too true, Fine Plate will actually hold fond memories....

[Morgrist]

I did Wu's armor from 131-158 on Inny. THAT was madness.

Smithing so far has been something I can pull the occasional 80 or so combines...I went from 177-188 on a humble 80 breastplates.

I expect it'll be tougher from here on in...190 is the "wall" where you think ONE in eighty is good.

[SamirDaStinky]

I'm one of the lucky ones that hit 222 on fine plate back before it was changed to a lower trivial, and even luckier to have recently received a Hammer of the Ironfrost, so i'm basically maxed out on skill

From what I hear from my smithing friends, the new skillup paths compared to the old ones are absolute hell =x

[Meirril]

This is hell? Try tailoring. :twisted: Better yet, don't.

[Sycloness]

By making picnics and the new LoY you can get to 186 without any silk. I went from 151-186 in 30 mins. I did spend 20k but well worth the money. Just wish i could get mass amounts of the new mana silk to make robes. I have like 10 stacks of ribbon now.

[OberonMiM]

After a bit of smithing other types of armor you will WISH you were still doing fine plate!!!

And im VERY serious about that

[Perseverence Rewarded]

After a bit of smithing other types of armor you will WISH you were still doing fine plate!!!

And im VERY serious about that

Yup, Yup

[Okotona]

Heh...

Perhaps I'm just nuts... but I rather like farming for SS moreso than doing FP....

Only problem is having the war in your favor, I have 9 stacks of Shrieking Substance, but 3 Wailing substances (from PC bears), the Grimling chief is fun to kill tho, good chance for some high quality Acrylia and actually got an upgrade from my *shudder* Slime Coated Harpoon (in Range slot of course), the Ceremonial Smudging stick (great for HoT from resists).

The problem is... I get there... kill chief, nothing happens, kill chief 2 more times, nothing happens, but it's okay... kuz I'm always LFG for PoV/PoS group while I'm farming, and usually I get a group by then, so as not to go crazy.

Farming for Swirling shadows wasn't that bad either, since I was killing them for both for shadeling silks and shadows (anyone else notice that there's a dry spell then you get like 7 in a row? /shrug), this was back while FP still wasn't trivial, but I still need padding for acrylia, right?

FP was good to me, I'm also at 188 myself. Geerlok ensured that from all my combines I only failed about 5 times >=D.

[kiztent]

I expect it'll be tougher from here on in...190 is the "wall" where you think ONE in eighty is good.

Actually... it doesn't seem to be.

From what I've seen the changes to increase number of skill ups in smithing, announced some patches ago really cut into the hell levels and made skill ups/combine easier.

It's getting the parts for the combines together that's annoying.

I'll take an example from either side of the house:

1 - Wu's. Everyone swears up and down this is the devil. I've PLed an enchanter to 52 so vials are easy, I have 3 brewers over 100 skill so clicking kiolas isn't bad (I timed myself once, 160 combines in 14 minutes). From 124 to 148 has taken me... 120 combines. I just bank silk (currently sitting on a handmade backpack full) and when I get too much, I click kiolas, summon vials and combine. Since the silk is from merchant mining, I don't farm at all. Someone who wants to skill up tailoring RIGHT NOW is going to have a different point of view.

2 - Fine plate. I don't have any smiths in this range, but I save padding (well, I collect components and make it into padding). Given that I sold 200 padding, and currently am sitting on ~60 padding, were I inclined to skill past fine plate, I would just take padding out of the bank, throw a K on the smith, make folded sheets, count skill ups. /yawn

I have the same attitude about any component that can be merchant mined. If it can be sold to vendors, I'll buy it, sooner or later (even windstones). I don't have any compelling reason to skill up or deadlines (self imposed or otherwise) to reach a certain skill, so I keep plodding away and banking skill ups when I can.

If you are willing to be patient, skilling up isn't a burden. It's not the combines per skill, it's getting to the combines. Except for pottery. That's just plain brutal.

The other effect is by increasing the chance to skill up, hell levels have drastically decreased (at least as far as I can tell). Won't really matter to anyone but the hardcore people until there is a clue received about windstone drops and HSM, but I've seen a huge difference when I feel like blowing celestial tempers or find a few imbued emeralds.

[Morgrist]

I qualify as "patient"...I tend to do combines as I gather materials for bursts of work.

Finding out I was threatening to Steel Warriors was surprising,though. Lots of milk dropoffs for me! :P Then it's time to start in on visors. Less clicks on the fingers than BP's were.