Gearlock vs Stat (Wis,Int,Str)

[Kanweian]

I am currently working smithing(191) with a HE character with int at 255 w/KEI. Would it be worth it to use a gearlock hammer in primary slot, sacrificing 10 intelligence. All items in my character's inventory have an int modifier on it making it difficult to simply buy a replacement item(s) with a significant boost to this stat without investing a lot of money (for example, spending lots of pp to replace 4 items with a net gain of 1int on each piece).


From my understanding the gearlock would increase the number of successfull combines but a maxed stat would increase the likelyhood of a skillup. Although I am not rich, a skillup would be more valuable to me then a successfull combine to recoup the investment in materials. I wanted to know what some of the more experienced smiths would do in this situation.

I'm sure one of the simplest answers will likely be the tradeskill trophy, granting not only the +5% skill modifier but also the option to equip the item in the range slot and not dropping my int stat at all. At 191 current skill this would of course be a hit or miss combine most likely resulting in at least one failure. I certainly wish to complete the trophy at some point in the future, but at this time (or any for that matter) it is possible to fail multiple attempts.

[Hethral]

Keep in mind the chance of a skillup is greater on a successful combine than a failure.

[Arhallia]

This is a good question. I'll try to answer it, although the "examples" I'm going to give are, in no way, accurate necessarily.

Say that your chance of skilling up on a success are approximately 20x greater than your chances of skilling up on a failure (I have had 2 skills on failures recently, in the mid 230s skill, so it *is* possible, although these are the first in a very, very long time on failures)

Now say that your chance of getting a skillup on a success is approximately (Int/Wis/Str)/30, around a skill of 200 and beyond.

If you are skilling up on items near your skill level, your chance of success, again as an example, we'll say is around 75%. With a Geerlok around 200 skill, we'll say your chances of success are around 85% (based on a couple different "smithing success formulae" that have been posted here from time to time).

Your chance of skilling up, with 255 (Int/Wis/Str), on a near trivial item, at around 200 skill, should be about (success chance + fail chance): ((255/30) * 0.75) + ((255/600) * 0.25) ~= 6.48% (which is very close to reported rates these days)

Your chance of skilling up, with 230 (Int/Wis/Str), on a near trivial item, with a geerlok, at around 200 skill, should be about (success + failure):
((230/30) * 0.85) + ((230/600) * 0.15) ~= 6.55%

You might think "doesn't really matter" except that it is *very* dependant on the situation at hand. The Geerlok/Trophy assumption is that you have an item that gives you at least 25 (int/wis/str) to replace the Geerlok in the primary hand, and that your natural skill is very close to the trivial of the item.

If you do not possess a high (int str wis) item for the primary (say 20+), or you are skilling up on items more than about 10 skill points above your trivial, I would say that using a Geerlok will signifigantly improve your chances of skilling up.

A lot of assumptions go into that statement, but I think that, even with signifigant variation from the numbers I guessed at, a geerlok improves your chances of skilling up on par with 20-30 (Int/Str/Wis), almost without question. ...and of course it lowers the expense of skilling up as well.

A report on # of skillups relative to failures/successes would go a lot way to proving or disproving this theory. I think you'll find that most people will agree that skilling up on a failure is very unlikely at high levels (although certainly possible, from personal experience).