I guess this is what you call a dry spell?need encouragement

[Eshelon]

I was 188, did 160 combines today now I'm 190..

Anyway, I'm sure this is typical. I was estimating 1000 Freeport cultural combines to get to 242... should I be estimating more than that? Or perhaps make no estimation at all? At current rate I estimate a little over 4000 combines... I sure hope not =P

Edit: P.S. 255wis + geerlok on combines.

Eshelon
Level 48 Ranger of Karana

[krunt]

im over 900 combines into 212. Did them all with 255-270 strength. So maybe this is revenge for 189 190 and 191 all within the same 10 combines or so. Or the RNG is just an evil evil punk.

Just try to remember why you are smithing. I managed to make all the cultural armor my guild needs during this stage (well except for my Girlfriends new hat. 0 for 300+ on that... don't ask me why, she just is having no luck) If you are smithing just so you can be 250 then well, ok. But otherwise smith what you want and when you want. Maybe just try to do a stack or two of regents each week if you realy feel the need to power up some combines, but the RNG will make you insave if you let it.

[KyrosKrane]

Gah. Yeah, that's a bad spell. It shouldn't be quite that bad on average ... but averages are funny things. You hit a bad run now, feel depressed, and stop ... when all you need to do is keep plugging at it. Give the RNG a chance to do its thing. Yes, it's hitting hard now, but on average (there's that wicked phrase again), you should be compensated by a lucky streak down the line -- or maybe you had it during your fine plate days.

Like you, I'm estimating 1000 or so combines from 188 to 242, but there's a couple of ways to reduce the pain. First, you only need 240 to hit the theoretical maximum of 252 with a geerlok. Taking it to 243 gives you a modified skill over 255, so that's the highest I'd aim for, short of actually getting a natural skill of 250.

Second, you don't have to do only FP cultural, though it's probably easier than most. Mix in various things. I plan to start doing Heraldic armor around 230 or so; I believe I'll have enough successes at least to cover my costs, and maybe make a small profit. At 210 with a geerlok, you can get a couple of relatively cheap points on Ethereal Rings.

If money is an issue, you can look into Shadowscream. You can also try farming the ore; it should be easy enough to farm Splitpaw or Highkeep for ore and fine steel weapons -- though the fact that you need blocks for smithing, not large bricks, is a royal pain.

As your skill rises, you can offer to do free combines for others if there's a chance of a skillup. Not many people will take you up on the offer, as they prefer to pay for a better chance of success, but you may get lucky and get a skillup or two this way.

As for skillup runs ... I've done around 120 combines so far, and gotten 5 skillups from 188 to 193. I'm aiming for a stack per point on average, so I'm doing OK. Perhaps a touch lower than I'd like, but I'm hoping the skillup rate will improve after I break 210. We'll see.

[xaanru]

For me, thats basically par for the course. My worst is over 300 combines for one point, but I often get 50+ combines with no skillup. Just keep going, every dry spell breaks.

[Piikaa]

I'm around 90 combines into 188 and still no skillups. I feel your pain.

[Cavel]

I am currently 213 skill and over 200 combines on that skill level. Most of these combines have been 2-10 tries at a time mix of Old Cultural, BD cultural, Tae Ew shields and chain and some PoP Chain (Night Terror). for myself and my guild. This weekend I did around 20 combines in a row of non-trivial items and made several people in my guild better items for twinks but did not get a skill up.

I would say that 1000 combines to get to 240 is a bit low, BUT it could happen.

[Koner]

It took me >1100 but <1200 non trivial combines to go from 188-200. Its all BAD RNG luck though as 196-200 was done in less than 100 combines.

I've done about 70 Tae Ew attempts
30 Dark Prince attempts
60 or so Acrylia attempts.
The rest have been Shadowscream. All improves from 188-200 were gained from Shadowscream. This isn't to say that any one armor is more likely to gain you a skill level its just the luck I have had with the RNG. We all know it sucks.

[Reflan]

Under "Learn a Skill" link on this board, under smithing, Monual has a nice write up. His wisdom is really high if I remember(over 300), and he estimates something like 1000 combines to get to 250 from Fine Steel(188).

Well, I did well over 300 just to get to 195. At that rate, things look truly nightmarish. I figure the 1 skill up in 20 combines people talk about is much more likely to happen if you either have great wis/int/str or great luck. At wisdom ranging from 265 to 285, I never had anywhere near that kind of luck on baking and pottery, my two I've gotten to 250. And smithing has been pretty bad, frankly.

Strangely, though, I just raised my wisdom 5 points to 290 by buying a planar AA, and suddenly in 62 or 66 combines(I forget) I went from 195 skill to 200. Wow!

Maybe just luck, but that was a helluva run. All I can do is suggest that just in case, you make sure your wis/int/str stat, whichever you use for smithing, is maxed. Buy a focus or KEI if you have to, whatever. P.S. -- shamans can stack focus and STR spells, if they cast the STR spell first.

[wyrmbane_]

encouragement

first off, I don't think i ever had a run greater than 1 skill up in 150ish combines.

The good news? After going from 180ish to 250ish, my average for the entire duration was 34 attempts per skill up.

The bad news? I had 5-6 runs of 100+ without a skill up.

It sucks. However, the fact that you are perservering means great things are in store for you. It is worth it. It is an insanely long road to get there, but the end result is good. You are late to the "Great mistletoe cutting sickle party of 2002," but the "Planar Armor Party" is just starting to get into the swing of thins. I estimate another good 6 months of the lower end armor, and Tae ew chainmail will be good for months to come. (I probably should say that as most smiths don't like to share the reality, but you wanted encouragement - kind of like, at 1/3rd of the sales price in the bazaar for clicking combine I made 12kpp one night.)

For some reason, most smiths discount the planar armors. As such, although there are a lot of smiths, it is still a viable area to hunt, get xp, get components, make armor. Even better is that by the time you can make your first, you should have enough to make a couple pieces to fund your Blacksmith shop startup.

wyrmbane

[Wolfhammer]

encouragement

I started smithin at lev 12 - Doh!!! Needless to say, I've quit smithing about 20 times LOL. You see where I still spend all my out of game time though!!! Hang in there, I'm right there with you.

[Iceblossom]

At max wisdom, I am approx. 100 combines in on Skill 191 trying to get to 192. Sometimes I dream I am really 192 but when I look at my skills list, nope, no luck.

I have enough things gathered for about 10 each acrylia and barbarian cultural combines. Maybe I should go wolf hunting and get some Shadowscream (lol why do they call it shadowSCREAM??) while I am at it.

But sooner or later I will get a skill up. And then just as an insult am betting I get another one in 5 combines... just to tempt me for the next 200 combines with no skill points.

[Haphern]

Somewhere between 188 and 200(ish) there's a rather nasty step that takes some people ages to get an imp.
From memory, mine was 193=>194, which took 60+ attempts (not as bad as some, fortunately) with 255 STR.

Generally, from what I've read here and seen (i.e. I have no proof to substantiate) 188-200 is probably the slowest imp/attempt rate you'll see.

[Fallwell]

Smithing can be terrible trying, but try to remember that it is a long journey. I would almost guarantee that you will hit some lucky spots along the way that will even it all out. There was nothing better in EQ (for me) then camping out after getting 4 skillups deep in the 200s. On the flip side, it was very rough spending 2 weeks without any at all.

Just be stubborn and committed and you'll make progress and join many of us in the GM Smith Club.

Good Luck,

Fall

[Gonan]

Keep going

Looks like you just hit a dry spell. It happens. Overall, I been fairly lucky I guess. 942 combines from 194 to 250, but from 212 to 220 took me 373 combines or 46.6 cimbines per lvl and felt like giving up, but it got better. Heck, it only tok 3 combines to go from 248 to 249. You'll get some that will take only 1 combine to move up a lvl. Just make sure to have your WIS, INT, or STR as high as you can get it. I also heard KEI might help even if you're a WIS or STR character, though I only tried it twice and didn't notice much difference. Good luck to you.

[cewtye pie]

Personally i found the RNG to be extremely time dependant. So much so that it is hardly even random. Make it work for you. Limit your failures, come back another time if you don't see success early. If you do see an early success, stay with it. Run off a stack of components, if you don't get a skill up, come back another day. If you do, keep going.

Quick illustration: If you are in a group rolling for something, and someone rolls for a seed take note of results. If the seed number is in the lower half of the possible range, note how the first rolls immedialty afterward will also be in the lower part of the range. If the seed number is in the upper half of the possible range, note how the first rolls afterward will also be high. Should really do a significant statistical sample, but i doubt very much it would appear random as it should.