Question re: cultural plate for a Bertox SK

[santino]

Hello all...

I'm looking for some advice for a human Bertox worshipping SK, with regards to smithed plate.

(1) Is it really true that the mid-level enchanted (non-imbued) cultural plate for dark elves cannot be worn by humans, even though the high-end cultural can be?

(1a) If the above is false, does DE plate represent a good path for an SK anyway? Teir'dal Regent Plate Armor seems decent enough, but not phenomenal.

(2) The alternate choice appears to be Human Smithing. I'd be going Qeynos because the FP Bertox imbued stats are pretty poor (-2 cha, 2 wis, 4 int, sv disease 2 on all pieces, plus 2 str on some) when compared to Qeynos' enchanted silver or plat full plate.

However, the temper seems to be a royal pain in the neck, particularly essences of sunlight. Is the ingredient farming as bad as it seems?

(2a) I never see Bertoxx imbued heraldic for sale in the bazaar. (I assume because the imbue requires a black sapphire, and there are not tons of Bertox worshipping healers?) Would going the human route therefore force me by default to wear fine heraldic despite there being a valid imbue for my deity (or force me to start a bertox worshipping cleric/shaman/druid too?) :-(

Basically, any suggestions for a Bertox worshipping SK would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
-San

[Zhorn]

If you just want to BUY a set of Fetid Heraldic (Bertoxxulous) then just ask the guys selling the other Heraldic's how much it will cost for them to make you a set.
I would imagine they may well ask for payment up front. Also it may be expediant if you provide the gems (preferably imbued - just ask around until you can track down someone of the required class/deity to do the imbue - maybe they wont charge you TOO much for it).
Perhaps also provide the tempers.

Maybe you will hit Jackpot and find a Human smith who will be happy to charge you a successful combine fee (like 1/3 retail) if you provide EVERYTHING.
Expect a 250 skill smith to succeed 40 to 50% of the time so provide 2x the materials needed to be safe.

That's if you just want to Buy a set.

Alternatively it may be better to just buy/pharm Thurg or Kael quest armor or even get some Night Terror Plate made.

Now if you don't plan to just buy a set, its a whole different story....
To get smithing past 188 is a very long and painful process which will cost you untold lost levels and AA points.

As far as which types of Plate are superior etc, perhaps also try asking on a SK message board. They more than likely have some very good advice for you (as well as doing a "/who all human shad 60 65" and ask a few peeps in person).

Hope this helps.

[santino]

Re: Zhorn

Thanks for the reply.

My wife has a high elf smith in the low 200s in smithing, so we've gone through some of the pain before, (albeit prior to the smithing patch last year). We're trying to figure out, if we were to make another smith, which race we would go for, with the caveat that they be able to make stuff my SK can use.

Going to the SK boards regarding the armour stats is a good suggestion... However, I was also interested in a few smith related questions, among them whether or not the odd issue of dark elf mid-level cultural (enchanted adamantite) lacking human as a race was indeed "the way it is." If so, has this been acknowledged as a bug, given that the high-end (tier'dal regent) is human wearable?

Additionally, I'm interested in people's experience with the relative difficulty of (a) farming the components for and (b) selling the end products of human (qeynos) vs. dark elf smithing.

Thanks again,
-S

[Zhorn]

There are lots of irregularities in Cultural armor, alas.

For instance, I can smith Barbarian Beastlord armor, provided they worship The Tribunal. There are no other beastlord cultural armors.
That might be ok if 1) There were more barb beastlords and 2) 1/2 or more of the Barb Beastlords I've talked too DIDN'T worship Mithaniel Marr!

As a barbarian I can imbue weapons for Tribunal followers OR Rallos Zek followers. However I can only make imbued Armor for The Tribunal...

I am sure other races probably have similar issues.

[Kingbobb]

San, I market Heraldic (any kind I can make) on E'Ci. It sells, bot like the proverbial hotcakes, but it sells. I've got a Rallos Zek Shaman that imbues gems for me, so I pretty much stick to that. There are a few other human GMs on the server, and we've each kind of got our own niche for which type of imbued Heraldic we sell. I know that on any good day, you ccan ask any one of us to help with a special order, but I don't know that any of the other GMs make a habit of it.

If you do happen to play on E'Ci, look for me, or my trader, Drasai. If you can get the gems imbued, we can try to work something out.

[Mikel Morbidus]

I'm a human Bertox worshipping Shadowknight on Povar.

I'm also a grandmaster smith.

If you are looking for fetid heraldic, you going to have problems. First, you going to have to order it directly from a smith. I dunno about others, but when I am making heraldic armor just to go to sale on the bazaar, I only make Luminant, (frog twink market, and good amount of clerics and paladins) or Fierce heraldic (almost all warriors now). Those are the only two varieties that have large enough markets that I am likely to sell out in a day or two. So putting it on my vendor is likely to yield a sale reasonably soon. Any other deity more likely to wait a bit more.

Bertox worshipers are really a niche market, even among shadowknights, most pick that deformed smurf Inny. Not to mention, I have never found any cleric who worships Bertox. Not a huge amount of human clerics to begin with, and most of the ones that are pick wussy gods like the Prime Healer, or Mith Marr, rather then a god called the Plaguebringer to be the deity their healing class. Go fig. Gnomes can be Bertox clerics too, but I have yet to find a gnome cleric who worshiped Bertox. So the odds of someone just making fetid heraldic just to put on the bazaar are insanely low. Not only would they have to know a cleric, but they would have to be willing to use rare royal tempers up to make armor geared for a minority of a minority, instead of making armor that would sell much faster for the same if not higher prices.

So it get it made, you would have to

A. Find a human smith
B. Find a cleric who worships Bertox who can imbue.
C. Be able to afford the costs the smith charges. (I charge 5k per ring regardless of imbue, and I find that is pretty consistent with what most smiths charge on Povar, but thats if I do all the work, I can usually willing to cut my prices for people who bring me sunlight)

There is hope however. I myself can and have made Fetid armor. I PLed my own twink cleric to 29 to do the imbues, and have made a bracer for myself and some armor for a friend. If you are on Povar give me a tell, I have a soft spot for Bertox Sk's and would be willing to help.

[kuronekosama]

I'd say post in your server's marketplace forums looking for a smith. Heck if you're on Xegony I certainly can and will do fetid for you ^^ I think I even have a few black sapphires already imbued in the bank, hehehe. Anyhow, that's who to ask. Poke thie smiths on your server - I would be very suprised if any of them would turn down a guaranteed sale. Also useful to know is only human and gnome clerics can be bertox. I found an imbuer by doing /w all gnome cleric 29 65

[santino]

Thanks

Thank you all for the replies...

My wife and I play on the Tribunal server. With all of your input, I think we've opted to do the following:[list]* create a human smith (potentially my SK)
* do mid-level FP cultural for skill-ups, but one set of mid-level Qeynos cultural to actually be worn, (since it seems so much better)
* Either smith fine heraldic for my own use (once in the mid 230s) or find a cleric (thanks for the tip on gnomes as a good potential source!) to imbue some attempts at fetid. For actual selling purposes, Rallos Z. seems a good choice, although I had not thought about the Mith. Marr armour with regards to frogs.[/list:u]

Thanks again for all the help! As odd as it no doubt seems, we're both excited about working on another smith, (particularly one who is not limited to Tunare armour, as our high elf is)

[Lilosh]

Why not make a human Cleric of Bert?

Assuming you don't use your SK.

That idea = Bird + Bird + Stone.



-Lilosh

[Zhorn]

Re: Thanks

Thank you all for the replies...
My wife and I play on the Tribunal server. With all of your input, I think we've opted to do the following:

I'm on the Tribunal server as well and now I've pretty much hit max mod skill as a barb smith I am helping a human 200 smith friend quickly skill up so we can cash in on the Froggie twink market too

We're planning to use a mix of imbued Freeport Field Plate + Shadowscream til 220 ish then hit the sickles hard till 230 or 240. It'll be fast with both of us pumping out the subcombines for those.

p.s. if you do decide its too much hassle to get a new smith char to 230+, look me up in a few weeks time and we'll do a deal!

[Hateborn]

DE Cultural

Regarding the difference between useability of DE mid and high level cultural armours: -

Loosely (and I mean loosely) mid level armours are race specific cultural (so wearable by Dark elves and Half elves) and high level armours are religion specific cultural - so wearable by worshippers of the appropriate god. (There are exceptions, many, but loosely that analogy works)(and try not to think about the frogs).

So the fact that a human can wear high level Teir'Dal cultural but not mid level is intended and not a bug.

All of which is academic to you as a bertoxx worshipper - because you couldnt wear either type of DE cultural as both require Innoruuk worshipping (at least when imbued in the mid level case).

If you want to make armour you can wear, make a human smith, and if you want to be able to imbue for yourself, make it a human bertoxx cleric. You'll be one of very few

[Morchal]

As a Human SK that worships Bertoxx thats been around since 1999 ...

I found that the easiest thing for me to do when it came to making the Fetid armor was to get a cleric to 29th to do my own imbues. It seems that the market for Fetid is very small (niche as someone earlier said) and getting a human cleric that worships Bert is a rare thing ...

anyway, If you are on Brell look me up ...

--Morchal

[Zeralenn]

It is true that the midlevel DE armors are not human wearable, but the high level ones are. The Teir'Dal Regent armor is actually quite nice, depending on the piece -- the stats aren't perfect but the AC is fabulous, and of course for SKs AC>>all.

However, in the meantime you might also want to check out Engraved Royal Velium armor as an alternative. It has good stats, decent AC, and many of the pieces are quite nice for an SK.

...Zera

[Morgrist]

From experience,it's tough to find someone who can make high cultural armor.

Find someone who can imbue cheap gems. Imbued field plate gorgets can take you to 219. From there,shadowscream works-and with the Moor fixed,this is a sane way to skill up.

[Kaysha Soulsinger]

There's no difference between Teir'Dal Regent Plate and Fine Heraldic Plate, stat-wise. The only difference is in the Temper needed to craft the final item, and the amount of Velium Ore needed. As it is, the Teir'Dal Regent Plate uses Folded Sheets (from Blocks of Velium), whereas the Fine Heraldic Plate uses Rings (from Large Bricks of Velium).