gnome combined LoY robes?

[darttorv]

i'm currently working my tailoring up for the Aid Grimel quest, i'm wondering if anyone has used these robes for skillup purposes. i've done a fair bit of farming for acrylia, wyverns, tigeraptors, othimars, and random other stuff. Just wondering if this is a viable way to get skillups compared to the velious/luclin leather/fur route. getting a caster to combine the different research components for the robes isn't a problem. i'm the guild's tinkerer and there's plenty of people that love my stuff anyway let me know if anyone has any input on this route for some skillups, pros and cons compared to the velious/luclin fur route. thanks

[Tweedledea]

Robes are my monk's current main skill-up route. I find I can pick up plenty of the words I need on merchants... every now and again I just forage up a bunch of dyes and make a bunch of robes... not too painful a skill-up route, and some of the robes sell in the bazaar ok, so you could probably recup your costs.

[darttorv]

i was talking about the robes that only gnomes can make

[Kieroth_whiteleaf]

Yes. Every int caster race has a separate set of robes that only they can make.

A human monk can make human "cultural" robes, which are almost identical to the gnome ones but usually with minor stat/focus differences.

For most of them, they are a VERY viable skillup route assuming you have a means to acquire the dye component - for a gnome that shouldn't be terribly difficult as I've heard that one of them is a very common drop in steamfont and can usually be found on vendors. Complete hearsay on my part though, I've never actually tried as a gnome.

I do know that the dark elf one is semi-difficult for me, as my forage bot is too low level to get the dye components consistently, so I spend a lot of time foraging in order to get only a few combines, but in my case the forager is getting XP while foraging so it's not a total wash. Your mileage may very.

From the TINY bit I've read on it, it appears that the gnome one is one of the easier ones due to the steamfont drops. I've also had reasonable success with the High Elf forages.

Sellback on the cultural robes is decent I've heard, as a lot of people use them for twinking - Most of my caster alts have the high end human cultural one at present but those were free because I make his swatches and he wanted to pay me back.

The two main blocks with cultural robes is that they require a foraged component and a research combine, and as far as I can recall no class/race combination can do both except possibly iksar necros (all iksar have forage I think?).

If you have a forage bot, a research bot, and/or friends this is a viable option. I usually make swatches for guildies if they bring me enough of the materials to make it worth my time (I get annoyed logging a toon on for 1-2 combines, but if you want me to do a run, sure) and I have a forager who gets components for me. Most of the foragers in my guild have been trained to save stuff for tradeskillers so we get a lot of supplies that way.

Getting the research components can be hard.. I need words of abrogation for my dark elf's high end robe, and I've only seen about 10 total in my career - so large skillup runs just don't happen for me.

SFG

[darttorv]

thanks for the info, i wasn't aware of the robe that each race has as cultural stuff. as far as getting the steamfront spring water, i've got a forage bot in steamfont mts right now and i can get a stack within 20-30 mins or so, it's a rather common forage so that part that you hear is true. only problem seems to be is getting the research components, anyone have any hints other than the merchant hunting?

[Kieroth_whiteleaf]

Bazaar.

The best way to do research component hunting that I've found (and I don't try too hard, the reseach forum would probably have better info) is to find out what level spell the components are used for and check vendors in/near zones where the mobs are about 1-5 levels higher than that. The merchants in EK are good for 16th level research components, and HHK has a decent stock of <30 ones.

Normally, because I have so many alts I just save ALL the components that drop, file them away on the appropriate alts, then go bank diving when I need specific ones... that usually gives me as much of the lower level crap as I need, but doesn't do much for the higher end stuff.

Killing mobs works.. on an average camp clear of about 6-7 mobs I usually get a component or two per clear.. so over time it builds up fast. Given exactly how many components are on a certain mob's loot table it's pretty hard to get specific ones, but you can always vendor/bazaar/stockpile ones you're not looking for. I get concussion runes a LOT, and a friend needs them.. he gives me all his abrogation words in exchange for my concussion runes.. I think he gets a better deal because of the bulk of runes I get, but I'm happy enough that I get the words I need so i don't really care much.

Tell your guild what you need. If you keep your list short (no more than 5-10 items MAX) they'll usually help you out. If they have to keep track of a lot of stuff they tend to forget, but if you say "I need all rain waters you find please" and that's it, often times you'll net a huge amount of them because they'll remember the one item.

SFG

[Aalar]

The Bazar is your friend.

If you are patient you can get whatever you need for a good price from the bazaar (abrogation excluded - can't seem to find that either). I have picked up about 200 various DE combines over 2-3 weeks of checking the bazaar twice a day or so. And the price has been very reasonable. A lot of times I can get the words/runes for 5pp each.

Aalar

[Ixiola]

I'm currently using the gnome culteral robes as a skillup route, but I'm not doing them en masse. The intellect robes (useing Yaeth's 25R and Platinum Seagreen ribbons) sell fairly well, so I do those when I can find the research component in the bazaar for a decent price.

If you're wanting to do a large volume for the training though, look for a component that's readily available and uses white ribbons. While breath of ro is easy to find, it uses silver seagreen ribbons if I recall correctly, so it's a pain to get the dye. As stated, the steamfont water (for white ribbons) is easy to get, but cauldron prawns (seagreen) are rare. I have hunted with my 53 ranger in DC and gotten maybe 1 prawn every 15 minutes (that's foraging every chance I get and slaughtering every goblin I find on track.) And no one sells the seagreen stuff on my server in the bazaar.

Astral runes are fairly common on vendors, use white gold ribbons, and so are probably your best bet.

[Kieroth_whiteleaf]

As long as we're on the subject...

Has anyone noticed whether ashweed (lavastorm) or cursed clovers of viesar (overthere) are more common?

I've been trying to forage both with little luck.. I get more CCoV because my forage bot still gets XP in OT so I hunt there when bored, but I didn't really spend enough time in lavastorm to notice whether it was a crappy forage rate or just the RNG being it's usual self. It seems to me I get more CCoV off mob drops than actual forages, but I haven't been keeping track more than idly in my head. My best was like 4 in an hour or so between forages and kills and I THINK only one was a forage.

Both are for dark elf robes so don't really apply to the gnome robes discussion, but I didn't want to start another thread for essentially the same topic.

SFG

[Silound]

I was killing for eggs back in the day, and was of course mowing down the zone for more basilisk spawns, and grabbed quite a number of ashweed off imps. I don't remember foraging any however. CCoV I rememberforaging by the numbers when I was killing for faction in OT.

[Ixiola]

Um, don't quote me on this, but doesn't ashweed drop in Sol A too?

I'm guessing the ashweed will be easier to find, but I'm not certain as my DE isn't working on tailoring.

[Whazy Weemage]

i was talking about the robes that only gnomes can make

I have been doing skillups when I can on the Gnomish cultural robes. Definately the hardest part is finding the research components for the swatches. I find Rune of the Astral more often than any other of the 6 components for the robes.

I have been soloing in PoHate a lot lately, and Rune of the Astral seems to drop there somewhere between uncommonly and rarely. When I have collected two full stacks, I do some skillups.

I did have to create a druid alt to forage for the dye components for me. (and I ended up liking the druid class more).

Another skill up route I found, although it is slow, is going to Dragon Necropolis and killing the spiders at the zone in for the phase spider silk. (2 Phase Spider Silks combined as they drop in my deluxe sewing kit.) I have gotten about 5 skillups points doing that combine - I am currently at 189 Tailoring.

[Kieroth_whiteleaf]

If you're thinking it drops off the goblins in sola, it's the asmag weed for poison.

I'd gotten a fair number of them and was thinking that too.. then they didn't combine with the water flasks, so I looked it up and realized the mistake.

I've been killing hordes of goblins and gnomes in sol A (My cleric epic needed a spawn so I kill the nearby ones for loot and my SK buddy needed melatite from clockworks) and have yet to see a single ashweed. Knowing they drop off imps helps, I'd been killing everything in the zone and didn't get any drops, but I didn't know what usually dropped them.

However.. for rogues:

Asmag drops frequently in sola :P

SFG