Skillup Advice ??

[Wandazula]

sure if you fail, they can be that cheap

[Eaeariel]

what I did.

I was pretty much in the same boat as you except for I have 2 foragers which help out immensely. I did ribbons to 188, then I would start making celestial essence before, during and after raids, made like 4000 of em. I would also gather runes of sorcery whenever i could as well and purchased any reasonable spider silks that I could find.

Once I started, I did the robes of sorcery first, 40 of them got me to 190. Then I did solstice robes with sorcery robes mixed in as i got the runes to 210. I didn't do them all at once, just did as much as I could stand every day before raiding. Once I hit 210, I took my two free points, and went back to solstice robes to 215. Now mind you this was done when JC was bugged, so soltice robes were kind of expensive, however they did sell on occasion so it wasn't a total loss there, just kind of pricey.

Once I hit 215 I whipped out every flawless hide and Robe of Tear swatch that I had. Fished a few cod and bought every reasonable peice of acrylia I could get my paws on. Between the Robes of Tears, Acrylia Reinforced, and Artic Wyvern Masks I managed to get to 223 and still have some hides left. The total cost here was somewhere around 100k I didn't keep exact counts, but I think thats pretty close. At that point I stopped tailoring and moved to fletching. It took me about 30k roughly to get fletching to 220 (those bows are friggen annoying!!!!).

After 12 hours in PoF I finally managed to get three saps. I think I am going to use up my 60 wyvern hides, 40 drake hides and 30 tear swathes first. See how many if any skillups I get, then pray that I make that robe. Anyway that was my path, I kept my sanity (just barely) and if I can get one more random act of kindness from the RNG my long journey will be very close to completion.

I wish you much success in whatever path you choose, good luck!!!.

[Quikpick]

I would very much advise you save the acrylia for fletching, making condensed substance arrows is fairly cheap and they will even sell off in bazaar.

Doh, I just blew through all my acrylia last night. Didn't realize how many small pieces you needed to make 1 fargin stud. On the plus side, at least I got 3 skillups on 36 attempts. Out of velium and acrylia now, time to try some Solstice robes.

Eaeariel, I wish I had access to a forager. It would make things a bit easier but the closest forager I have is a level 9 ranger. Don't really feel like PL'ing a forager, hehe.

[drtyaty]

Additionally

It has been my experience that the fargen Solstice Robes are horrible for skilling up on. I have done 80+ combines on more than one occassion w/o seeing a skill up. As soon as I use up all my gem studded chains, no more Solstice Robes for me; I think they suck, lol.

Additionally, now that I have someone who is allowing me access to their forager, I have plenty of dye components to make robes; in fact, I am in far greater need of runes of the inverse, words of the ethereal, etc.

But, if you don't have access to a forager, I say stick with the Solstice Robes till 210; just be prepared for horrible runs where you aren't getting any skill ups and be prepared to farm the devil out of spider silks or spend a fortune obtaining them because each combine costs 6 spider silks. It also costs 3 imbued emeralds (which you will need a 39+ druid or cleric friend of Tunare diety to make by the truckload for you; I have them do 10 stacks at a time for me); 6 solestial essence; 1 robe or tunic pattern (can't remember which); and, of course one chain, which you will ordinarily get back, but which is still very pricey and for which you had better have a very good enchanter for. And, now you know whey they are so pricey. Perhaps if you are lucky they are 50pp/combine, although I seriously doubt that is accurate, the pp you are spending/point really sucks in my opinion.

I can't wait till I am done with these things. To me, wyvern hides and loy robes are the way to go, although I haven't seen a freaking point on a Loy Robe combine either I dont' think, despite doing 40 or more combines.

/rant off

[Tuko]

Tailoring 170+ My Path

Well, as you well know by now, be prepared to alternate between ultimate frustration and occasional elation as you spend way too much time, plat, or whatever making the occasional very cool thing.

I worked Studded Acrylia until High 170's and LoY came out, so Ribbons and Robes took most of my 180's and 190's. In or about 192 I made a run at Solstice, 125 combines later I had a few robes, and only 2 skill hits to show for the effort. So I went back to robes. I found I got a lot more skill hits on the Racial Robes recipes so if this path is open to you, I recommend it.

Skill from 190 to 210 was just a pain though, as with other skills.

From 210 to 244 I alternated between Reinforced Acrylia, Racial Robes, and Solstice Robes, with an occasional Velious run. I avoided making the throw - away masks and bracers, and started a Mule in /Baz for selling.

On Money: Once Solstice robes caught on as a skill-up and the price dropped to under cost on Xegony, and my success rates got higher than 25% - I simply could not afford to pour all the plat into tailoring throw-aways to advance. So I started making all the popular Velious pieces instead of the masks. This delayed me dramatically (3 months) from 220 to 244, but changed the equation enough to get positive cash flow !

All I can say is Good Luck ! At 244 I already have my Artisan Seals prepped for trying my trophy ...... so close .... sooooo close.