Smithing on 3k plat?

[Ariene]

I'm looking at this from a different perspective - I don't want to GM smithing and I don't really want to make anything. I just want to know approximately how far I could expect to get by spending 3k. I have 300 wis so I should expect rapid skillups at the low levels but I know from baking that it will slow down rather quickly.

The reason I'm asking about 3k is that that is the amount the HoH Quest guy charges for doing the combine. If I could get my smithing that high I would rather put the time in and have the skill to show for the money rather than just pay an NPC for the combine.

180 should be high enough and depending on how long it takes me to get the block of perillium (which seems to be the hardest from what I've heard) I may be willing to attempt it at 160ish.

I know smithing at high levels is extremely expensive. I read the beginner guides and 188 seems to be a breakoff point. The guides didn't really tell me approximately how much to expect to invest on each section (which I understand because it varies greatly) and I'm just wondering if anyone can tell me...

Did seeing 3k for smithing make you go into hysterics laughing and I should forget even getting past 100 on it or is this reasonable and although I might not make it to 180 I should at least be able to get there for 5k (which I would prob be willing to spend to do it myself rather then the NPC - that way I still have the skill for other possible things in the future).

I currently have 10k in the bank and I am about to attempt another spoon so 5k is really my limit on this. Should I just fork over the 3k to the NPC or do I have a chance at making it to 180 for 3-5k?

[Meirril]

Well, I'm just making an intelligent guess here.
Assuming a decent success rate, you should be able to get to 100 skill in about 50pp. Fiagure following the embroderie needle recipee to 120 would cost ya about 200pp at most (may even be able to make plat on this, I belive the success sells to a merchant for more than the combine costs, but not much more).
At this point I'd imagine you'd start making ornate electrum armor till you get to 135-140. No idea what this would cost, but I hear its a big money sink. Personaly, I might opt to do fine steel instead. Generaly, you want to be about 30 below the trivial for best skill up range and fine steel is only a little above this. Depending on the cost of each combine, skipping ornate might be the way to go.
When your doing fine plate, definatly definatly definatly farm your own padding. Saving 20pp per combine is well worth it (basicaly 1/3rd of the combine cost!).

p.s. post your results please, I'm currious about this.

[brilgain]

0-188

Well, 3k should be enough IF you do all your farming of leather padding for when you begin making fine steel. From 0-132 or so you probably would only have to spend 500pp if even that. Pretty sure I got by with less than that.

From that point til skill ~180 you could definitely come in under your pp goal. Once again, if you don't farm your own leather padding and just buy it then you'll probably run ~7k (taking in account each leather padding to be roughly 20-22pp per) to reach skill of 188...or 180. With your wis as high as it is you can bank on an average of 8-10 attempts per skillup point. Hope this helps.

Edit: Actually, I just got done doing from 122-188 all from fine steel at very minimal cost. I farmed all my leather padding too. I logged my skillup results and will try posting them tomorrow

[kiztent]

It really depends. You could go to 250 with a bunch of farming and less than 3k. You could empty your pocketbook on padding and not make 180 with 3k.

[Myrron]

If you go the ornate chain then fine plate route, and if you farm your own padding, I'd say 170-ish would not be unreasonable. Fine plate successes sell back with maybe a 1pp loss with decent charisma if you farmed the padding, so once you hit 150's+, smithing is not too painful in the pocket.

If you plan to buy padding, you might get to 150's I guess (random guessing). Depends on padding prices.

--Myrron

[Bennan]

If you farm your own paddings, I would say 3 to 5k will get you to 160 - 180, maybe a little more if the range is kind.

If you don't farm your own paddings, depending on your server prices that could be reduced greatly. In fact even if your server was selling padding at 10pp each, thats 1k for 100 attempts.

[Ariene]

Thank you for the input. I'm going to try this and see how far I get on 1k and then decide from there.

Want to check into padding costs which I would be more likely to vendor farm then hunt although I will most likely avoid bazaar prices unless I see a really good deal.

Will post results so you have an answer for the next newbie that comes in asking how much smithing costs.

~

Wow! I just reread the Learn Smithing section and looked over recipes and I'm confused! Smithing is a lot more complicated than baking was. Jewelcraft was easy - I got to 122 in one sitting on 300p and it was obvious the route to take. Smithing isn't as obvious even with the guides. Baking doesn't really matter because it is very rarely a huge money investment - I did that for fun just baking whatever I happened to hunt as I grew up. Anyway, just had to post that although I haven't even started yet I have aquired a huge amount of respect for those of you who have mastered this skill!

[Myrron]

If it may help, I just submitted a revision to my guide a day or two ago. I know the Denmom got it, so it should be posted soon. Among other things, I tried to make each step more clear by numbering them and adding spaces where there apparently were none. Hope it helps!

--Myrron

[Taraddar]

I'd definitely consider http://mboards.eqtraders.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4864 once you get your smithing up to 100ish skill. Should be a cheap way to get to 132.

I would avoid ornate if you want to try and conserve pp. I did it back in the day before the trivial change and it was a huge money sink. I don't remember the numbers any more but it was like 20-30pp loss on a success on the 3 sheet items.

[kiztent]

I would avoid ornate if you want to try and conserve pp. I did it back in the day before the trivial change and it was a huge money sink. I don't remember the numbers any more but it was like 20-30pp loss on a success on the 3 sheet items.

Given that padding on Stormhammer in the bazaar lists for 75pp and up, and very rarely lower, that'd still be cheaper than buying your own padding.

And if you make money faster than you can farm padding (hypothetically, if you can make 1k an hour or farm 10 paddings in an hour, buying padding is again cheaper). While it's all well and good to consider the "cheapest" route, consider also the sunk time in the farming to "save" your money.

[Aanna]

I can tell you for a fact that it is easily possible to get to 188 with less than 5kp. I started a couple months ago with precisely 5k on my cleric. Simply working in SH and the Bazaar, I did banded and then fineplate (with a few stacks of silver arrowheads for a friend thrown in). I bought my padding in the form of pelts and silks in the bazaar, combining it myself, and never paid more than 10pp each that way.

When all was said and done I still had 1500pp in the bank. My Wis was only about 240 through this too.

Hope it's still useful info =)
-Aanna

[Segal]

You could possibly do it under 3k, but I doubt it would be cost effective.

In the time it would take you to get to 180 skill, you could easily farm any number of places to make far more than 3k in cash.

[Kradlum]

Quickest way to farm padding is to slaughter rockhoppers in Marus Seru, since they nearly all drop either a LQ hide or greyhopper hide (you can use the greyhopper hides to get tailoring up to about 95 too). Then head over to Shadeweavers Thicket and slaughter silk worms or Lesser Shades for shadeling silk. If you hit the Shades at the same time a smith is farming them for Swirling Shadows then it works quite well if you collect the stuff for each other.

[sir0die]

the ornate chain route is not too exspensive if you are willing to farm FS steel weapons and convert them. some folks claim that it is easier and saves ya few plat, to just farm FS weaps, then sell them and buy the HQ ore. Either way, it is not plat out of your initial Plat pool.

some good places to farm mass quantities of FS weaps, HHK (forge one zone away in HHP)(beware the faction hits) and i think solA. then of course there is always the HGs in rathe.

the disadvantage of buying the HQ ore is, the vendors have a limited supply and you have to do a quest to restock them.


Like all tradeskills, the more you farm, the cheaper the skillup costs.

Lazy folks spend more on their tradeskills.

[Zeralenn]

I would avoid ornate if you want to try and conserve pp. I did it back in the day before the trivial change and it was a huge money sink. I don't remember the numbers any more but it was like 20-30pp loss on a success on the 3 sheet items.

The three-ring items are a money sink, but if you do embroidering needles to 122 or better yet, cultural needles to 132, you can bridge the 132 to 163 gap between needles and FP very nicely and only do some one-ring and a few two-ring ornate items, and only use electrum and gold, never platinum.

Those specific items mentioned are not very expensive, even with purchased ore, but you can even do a small profit if you loot ore or convert some FS weapons (see separate thread on the fine steel conversion numbers). Not all weapons are cost effective to convert.

Ornate chain gets a very bad rap, but when you look at the actual numbers, it is a largely undeserved bad rap.

...Zera