High Elf - fastest route 188+ ?

[JakartaTorv]

High Elf Wizard, 280str 355int with focus/kei... any thoughts on the quickest route to 220ish from 188? I started the Shar Vahl smithing quest... but after solo AEing Hollowshade for almost 2 hours, I have about 50 of each substance to show for it. I'm willing to dump some plat into this if it'll get me through quickly, hopefully not more than 75k or so. Any ideas/suggestions for alternative paths are welcome

[Kronepsis]

Taken from the post titled "FAQ - Smithing":

Q: What's the fastest way to 250?
A: Short answer: Nobody really knows. Since May 8th (2002), Smithing was drastically changed. However, a lot of trivials have been narrowed down, so the best advice is to figure out which trivial is the closest above your skill and work to that.

Although at this point, the question should probably be amended to "What's the fastest way to skill up past 188?", just replace that question with yours.

The Economical Smith, Version 3.0 by Zeralynn is a nice way to start researching.

[Myrron]

Sickles are expensive. You've tried Shadowscream. That pretty much leaves acrylia plate (windstones slow you down here) or high elf cultural (I don't know much about it). I'd probably get some feedback on what your cultural route is like and then decide. If you're on a budget, I would recommend staying away from sickles.

--Myrron

[Vigeant]

Re: High Elf - fastest route 188+ ?

High Elf Wizard, 280str 355int with focus/kei... any thoughts on the quickest route to 220ish from 188? I started the Shar Vahl smithing quest... but after solo AEing Hollowshade for almost 2 hours, I have about 50 of each substance to show for it. I'm willing to dump some plat into this if it'll get me through quickly, hopefully not more than 75k or so. Any ideas/suggestions for alternative paths are welcome

If ya want to throw cash to go faster, pay peoples to farm swirling shadows (pay 500pp a stack) and only farm owlbears and wolves in HSM i went from 188 to 250 in 2 weeks that way and cost around 50 60k for swrilings

[kiztent]

Re: High Elf - fastest route 188+ ?

High Elf Wizard, 280str 355int with focus/kei... any thoughts on the quickest route to 220ish from 188? I started the Shar Vahl smithing quest... but after solo AEing Hollowshade for almost 2 hours, I have about 50 of each substance to show for it. I'm willing to dump some plat into this if it'll get me through quickly, hopefully not more than 75k or so. Any ideas/suggestions for alternative paths are welcome

Sickles may work for that range and price. May not though. The downside is that you need imbued emeralds by the bagful, each combine costs ~330 (plus imbue costs) and you will fail 19 out of 20 combines until you get to 210 modified or so. One bad run could clean you out, getting gouged on imbues will kill you, but you may make it.

High elf cultural is WAY worse, as is acrylia plate, and with sickles and shadowscream represent all the possible paths.

[Xefin]

People act like sickles are fast and easy, but just cost a ton. Not really. All the time you spend on imbues and subcombines has to be considered, as well as the ridiculous expense. I'd see it as more viable if your server still has a market for sickles. Then I'd say maybe in the 210-230 range, when you make them sometimes, but not always, you might make a salable quantity and defray your cost.

High elf cultural I don't think is a good option. It takes a bunch of farmed components, and BDs/imbued emeralds for the better stuff. Acrylia - you'll never find enough windstones.

The answer: just do Shadowscream. It hurts, but with swirling shadows farmable now, pay someone else for those in bazaar (or rent a farmer directly) and concentrate on substances.

By all means supplement your main route with whatever you find. If you find a good price on emeralds, make a run of sickles. If you find good prices on windstones or swirling mist or tae ew blood or whatever, do some of that stuff.

[kiztent]

People act like sickles are fast and easy, but just cost a ton. Not really. All the time you spend on imbues and subcombines has to be considered, as well as the ridiculous expense. I'd see it as more viable if your server still has a market for sickles. Then I'd say maybe in the 210-230 range, when you make them sometimes, but not always, you might make a salable quantity and defray your cost.

Disagree. Hollowshade may be fixed, but shadow drop rates (from what I've heard) are utterly sucktastic, no rent or not no rent. It is still MUCH quicker for me to combine sickles, subcombines or no subcombines, than to farm endless shadows to make armour that doesn't sell hardly anyway.

Of course, sickles sell fast at 3k here too, though I rarely have more than 3 up.

[Tathagata]

Why are Imbued Emeralds such a stopping point for you guys? They only cost like 10pp for the Emerald dont they?
I dont know if Clerics charge to Imbue them or not, but if any of you are on Zeb server and want some done I have a cleric alt that will do them for free, no probs at all.
Just send me a tell in game and mention this ad, hehe.

[Sanna]

hm, an advertisement... be careful of the enchantress of doom seeing that outside the marketplace forums...

I recall an Emerald costing right near 15p, but i wasn't keeping incredibly good track at the time. I do recall thinking, 'that's more expensive than a p-dot! ~_~' at the time, and those are around 12 for me...

and not many people have the patience to imbue large quantities of emeralds. At lvl 29 or 30, I could do about 6 before being oom. my 61 tunare cleric roomie can get..... i think she said 18 before being 'dangerously low on mana', which granted for her can mean 30 pct. Cast, bag it, sit and regen, stand, cast again... who has the patience for that, without being compensated quite generously?

now i am happy to help out a fellow tradeskiller with what i consider to be relatively low return for time invested; ie, i wouldn't charge 300p a stack (but i sure wouldn't refuse the offer of such ^_^). However, some people would, or would even charge more.

my 2c... or 15p.....

[Xpolgara]

your best bet would be to go with ShadowScream Steel armor. It's a pain, but it's less than spending time and money doing sickles. High Elf cultural is definetly NOT an option for skill ups. Unless you have both a forager and enchanter with time to waste getting Morning Dews and enchanting the mithril.

It's been said before, there isn't any fast way getting to 188+
unless you want to spend 300k+ doing sickles =/

but you stated you only want to spend 75k

[JakartaTorv]

Imbueing emeralds isn't a prob, I have a cleric/druid I've been DCing to imbue them myself when I'm not raiding. Going to do a small test run on the sickles and see how the cost is on those... 75k was an approximation, the cost isn't a huge issue compared to time.

Thanks for the advice everyone, looks like back to Hollowshade and a few sickles here and there it is :shock:

[Maldisdain Atheist]

I'll just throw this one out there...

If money really isn't an issue for you, you might consider hiring someone to do the subcombines for you (Blessed Dust of Tunare / Mistletoe Temper).

Personally, I like to hire lower level friends of mine to do things like farm dropable components from lower level mobs, and do a lot of those combines that are trivial, but time consuming. At this point, some are lucky to make 200pp in an hour, others are lucky to make 20pp. Many of these things can be done while they are waiting for groups, or just don't feel like grouping.

I imagine you could get someone to make the Blessed Dust of Tunare for you (including the celestial essence required for it) for around 25-30pp/dust (if they have to buy the emeralds, too. Provide the emeralds, and you can probably chop 15-20pp off the price)... about twice the cost of doing it yourself.

But sweet God, making that dust makes me want to kill myself.

[kiztent]

Why are Imbued Emeralds such a stopping point for you guys? They only cost like 10pp for the Emerald dont they?

14pp each. I buy every one I see at 30pp each, I rarely see them for sale at 40 and 50pp each - and it's usually partial stacks so someone is buying.

Now...

Each cast takes 200 mana. KEI is 14 mana per tick. So with just KEI regen rates, you're talking about 15 ticks (or a minute and a half) PER imbue. Obviously if you invest 8k in a horse to med while imbuing, this will help, and of course you need to buy a MP2 item, which will also help, as well as lock in the proper specialization.

Anyway, let's say you regen the mana in a minute. Each sickles takes 3 emeralds. Each skill point takes 30 combines. That's an hour and a half of imbuing PER skill point (on average). With 62 skill points from 188 to 250, you are talking about 93 hours (2 weeks and change for standard work weeks) of doing nothing but imbues. Hardly a trivial task. 12 8 hour days of nothing but imbuing, give or take.

Let's not even talk about subcombines for sickles. It takes me about an hour per 10 combines starting with nothing but the emeralds and cash on hand. 9 celestial essence per combine. Wheee.

The upside, for me, is that you can do it any time. No need to wait on respawns, no hoping for drops so you can combine, no retarded zone wars. The upside is that they are a huge pain, never mind the emerald imbues, which are incredibly time consuming.

[Cavel]

As a HIE Smith of 213 skill I have been doing old world cultural to improve my skill, HOWEVER I also am a tri-boxer (Pally Smith, HIE enchanter to enchant the Mith, and a Woody Druid to forage and Imbue.3 seperate accounts) I have found that with my 3 characters levels 57 and 54 and 54 I can do the HIE cultural fairly well. The problem I have is the Morning dew. Even with brownies and fairies dropping it I still find myself paying 20-50pp per dew in the bazaar most days.

I have never done shadow scream and will never do it myself because I consider it a waste of my time, the items I currently make are being used by my guild mates and friends when I make them (in most cases) where as shadowscream would just end up as vendor fodder.

I HATE seeing my work go to waste

[Bregalad]

According to what I've read, dire sonics in TM are a better source of Shrieking, and grimy owlbears in Paludal are better for Wailing. Hollowshade has the convenience of having both mobs in one zone, but drops are worse...