Which way would be better? Wis or modifier or spend 2k?

[Eshelon]

I am at 188 smithing and I have about 400 freeport cultural combines to do very soon. These are my options as to what to wear / use.

I can have 255wisdom with no geerlok
I can have 250wisdom with geerlok
or I can spend another 2k and have both

I have heard before that you're more likely to get a skill up if the combine is a success so that would imply that using the geerlok would be advantageous. But is 5 wis > or < +5% skill.. Sometimes we skill up on failures too.. has anyone really crunched numbers on this or is it basically personal prefrence?

[Hethral]

I'd blow the 5K and get both. Successes are going to be very rare starting BD cultural at 188, and it's worth the 2K to get the best chance on each of them, especially considering how much each attempted combine costs.

[cattywumpus]

Since the actual calculation for skill-up rates is still unknown there is no way to answer you question accurately.

I would agree with Hethral, spend a little now to get the best chance you can. It will be a drop in the bucket by the time you are done.

[Perseverence Rewarded]

If you are doing the Imbued field plate and not the Fine seafarers armor I would suggest doing it with 255 wisdom and not worry about the geerlok.
The trivials on Imbued field plate are low enough to get a good success rate and with 255 wisdom the skill ups will come a little bit faster. I recently went through this skill up path myself.
Of course if money is no object than by all means do both.

[Eshelon]

Yeah, I should have been more specific, not doing BD cultural, I'm doing imbued field plate.

[Morani]

From what I've seen of the numbers people have posted on how much plat they spent past 188, 2k is peanuts. I too would suggest that you spend the 2k to get both. if you can shorten your run of attempts to reach 250 by getting TWO skill-up points faster then you would have, then you have broken even and then some. At higher levels, I've seen people say they've spent 6k per 20 combines and get skill-up about every 60-100 combines (that's not listing the bad-luck runs). The less you have to spend, the better. Also, with the geerlok, you get more finished product to return for sale and recoupment.

[Fallwell]

The success rate on imbued field plate was extremely high for me when I worked through it. It seemed that most times I would fail on 1-2 pieces per stack of combines. At the time I usually smithed with around 245 wisdom (sometimes 255) and no geerlok. If it is an either/or situation, go with the highest wisdom possible.

~Fall

[papyscott]

Get everything ready and bum/buy a wis buff. With KEI you could probably have both for 100pp instead of 2k...

Of course maybe that is already in the calculation :-)

Success rates on imbued field plate are extremely high at 188+ skill (95%+ in my experience). I doubt the geerlok will make a noticable difference. I agree with the posters that say make sure wis is maxed. Even one more skill up is worth it.

Papy

[Flintforge]

Smithing with STR instead of WIS

I use my STR to 255 instead of Wisdom to 255. I am at 182 now and have more than enough leather padding to get me to 188. But reading this topic everyone keeps saying get wisdom to 255.

As a paladin thats near impossible unless I go thru a complete gear change. I thought that with the newest info, the highest of STR, INT, and WIS was used for smithing. Since I am a dwarf and paladin, I went with STR to 255.

Am I missing something?

[Perseverence Rewarded]

Hiya Flintforge,

The reason most tradeskillers suggest wisdom is so that you can have a skill-up suit that you can use for other tradeskills. I have to change clothes every time I do any non-trivial combines. A pain but well worth it.

[kiztent]

Re: Smithing with STR instead of WIS

I use my STR to 255 instead of Wisdom to 255. I am at 182 now and have more than enough leather padding to get me to 188. But reading this topic everyone keeps saying get wisdom to 255.

As a paladin thats near impossible unless I go thru a complete gear change. I thought that with the newest info, the highest of STR, INT, and WIS was used for smithing. Since I am a dwarf and paladin, I went with STR to 255.

Am I missing something?

Well...

It depends. I have 180ish int buffed and 255 str in my smithing suit (swap in custodus arms and gloves, CDS offhand, geerlok main). 180 int works for skilling up pre-200 (everything but smithing), and the 255 str is for smithing.

If you plan on taking another skill past 200, then get 255 wis. STR is fine if you just want to smith.

[Celdil]

For smithing only, you are correct Flint. The 255 STR will get you the exact same chance at Skill up that I have at 255 WIS.

Others are correct tho, that if you wish to do multiple tradeskills, Smithing is the only one that uses STR to check for Skill Up, so getting gear to bring Wisdom or Intelligence will help you brew, bake, tailor, etc.

As for everyone mentioning Wisdom in this thread, I think that's because the original poster was asking if his money was better spent on a Geerlock, or in maxxing out his Wisdom. I think we all just focused on that stat from that point.

[Ariene]

Not sure if you already counted in your 250 but a cheaper method for getting that extra 5 wis/int/str might be from food or drink. I use Hero Sandwhiches and Tea but if you are going for str there are other options. Bored so looking through the list... prices are a guess but should be at least somewhat close dependant on server. This is not a list of all the stat food, just the ones I happened to think of... you should be able to use food as a category and then sort by a stat in the bazaar to get what you need.

Hero Sandwich 100p
Str: +10 Sta: +5 Agi: +5 Dex: +5 Wis: +5 Int: +5 HP: +30 Mana: +30

Misty Thicket Picnic 10-20p
Str: +5 Sta: +5 Wis: +5 Int: +5 HP: +20 Mana: +30

Qeynos Afternoon Tea 10-20p
Dex: +5 Wis: +5 Int: +5 Agi +5

Grobb Liquidised Meat
Str: +6 Sta: +6 Wis: -1 Int: -1