Cultural tailoring idiots guide?

[Cloudane]

Right, I'm completely and utterly lost!! I've come back to EQ after a few years and seemingly everything about tailoring has been turned upside down.

I can still make the bog standard armor using wolf/cat/bear pelts or swatches of spider silk, but obviously it's kind of worthless these days (I have better armor from newbie quests on my level 10 drakkin monk than my old level 48 druid??). Had I not remembered, I'd never have figured it out so I do feel sorry for complete newbies.

I'm guessing that cultural armor is the way to go, and seeing as it's for a monk, it'll be silk.

But how to go about it, I have no idea.
There's an "Ancestral Armor" quest, which I haven't done yet but should result in a book and then the availability of 5 symbol books.
Then there's the "Tailored Armor" books which tell you how to make templates, but I wouldn't know what to do with those afterwards.
Then there's the new cultural historian with two scrolls, one for armor and one for symbols, which I've scribed. But they don't say *what* recipies they scribed so I don't really know what I'm doing, and they seem like a confliction with what the "Ancestral Armor" quest promises so I'm kind of lost there too (did they forget to remove the old cultural quests or something??).
I found some symbol recipies on the loom after scribing the two new scrolls, but nothing about armor.
On searching the forums someone mentioned cultural sewing kits, but I've no idea where to get those either!
Edit: Just to confuse matters further, I've found 3 books titled "Culturally inspired armor" - sheesh just how many different books for apparently the same purpose are there?!


There seems to be very little information around even for the older cultural armor, so I'm utterly confused. Is there an idiot's guide anywhere? TIA!

[Gaell Stormracer]

Monks actually use Leather for cultural, not Silk, which means that the weight of the armour is actually a serious problem until later levels.

The final, wearable cultural tailoring is done in a race-specific sewing kit, which needs to be made by a Smith of the right race, you also need a cultural sewing needle (which can actually be made by a smith of any race, using a brewing combine made, in your case, with some Crescent Perch, fished in CR, with an embroidering needle).

However, for skill-up purposes, it's easier to just make the generic leather or silk templates - these can be made using any sufficiently large sewing kit.

[Cloudane]

OK thanks, I guess if there's no need to bother with cultural armour until later on then I'll just leave it for now until when (or if) it makes sense

Kind of OT, but I'm already at a skill of 70 or so from the tailoring newbie quest so is there any need to keep hold of the stacks-upon-stacks of coarse and rough silk I've been filling the bank with "just in case"? And is it possible to make some sort of new silk armour in the mean time, or is Cured Silk still the way to go? (It was when I was last in, but like I say that was years ago)

[Gaell Stormracer]

Ah, you're well past the triv for those - the armour you make with that will not currently be useable by you; for that, cured silk or wu's fighting armour is the best bet.

[Speckk]

I have the same problem, a while away from EQ and then the onslaught of these cultural recipies only to have them suddenly changed all over again.

My tailoring is about 185 atm from skilling up using the old-skool methods (Wu's mainly hehe)

I know about the cultural sewing kit, I know about the needle, what I don't know is what to do next.

Are the quests for the pattern books still needed?
What out of all the wierd and wonderful things that have been dropping all over the place the last couple weeks do I need to keep to make shadowrise armour?
Why did I ever look at tradeskilling and think "yeah, that'll be fun" !?!?!

/rantoff

[Aldier]

The new cultural changes served 2 purposes. First, to balance the drop rate of cultural armor components across all class/races. Also, the minimum chance to fail (success cap) was removed on the armor combines.

The second was to establish a skill up path for smithing and tailoring.

There are currently 11 template tiers. Templates use XXX Silk, XXX Animal Pelts for tailoring and XXX Ore for Smithing. These drops are more common and depend on the level of the mob and the type of mob. Spiders drop silk, animals drop pelts, "golems" drop ore. Humanoids have a smaller chance but can drop any of the 3. Check the general tradeskill sections for a full listing of all 11 tier item names and check the smithing section for definition of "golem". Templates do NOT have a skill up bonus.

There are currently 4 armor sets. These are the same armor we had prior to the changes stat wise, the recipes were changed to fit the new system. The Spinneret Fluid for silk, Marrow for leather, and Loam for Chain/Plate drop similarly to the template silk/pelt/ore drops only slightly rarer. The top 2 levels of ARMOR still have the skill up bonus that existed on those levels of old armor.

Template patterns are sold on vendors. For templates, you need a simple sewing needle, sold by same vendors. For armor, the pattern still comes from the Ancestral Book of XXX Armor. For symbols, the pattern comes from the books from the quests in your hometown. These quests changed a couple months back and the "collect" part was changed to receive "impressions" which you gain from killing the appropriate mob. The raw materials for the symbols are the same as for those used in the template and armor of that level.

Templates can be made in any kit/loam. Armor still needs cultural needle in a cultural kit.

Recipes cannot be learned through experimentation. The only way the tradeskill UI will list the combines is if you purchase and scribe the book. The vendors are set up to offer books based on your skill level so you may not be able to buy the top level book without a high skill. There are separate books for templates and for armor and for symbols.

[Rawckett]

The new cultural changes served 2 purposes. First, to balance the drop rate of cultural armor components across all class/races. Also, the minimum chance to fail (success cap) was removed on the armor combines.

The second was to establish a skill up path for smithing and tailoring.

There are currently 11 template tiers. Templates use XXX Silk, XXX Animal Pelts for tailoring and XXX Ore for Smithing. These drops are more common and depend on the level of the mob and the type of mob. Spiders drop silk, animals drop pelts, "golems" drop ore. Humanoids have a smaller chance but can drop any of the 3. Check the general tradeskill sections for a full listing of all 11 tier item names and check the smithing section for definition of "golem". Templates do NOT have a skill up bonus.

There are currently 4 armor sets. These are the same armor we had prior to the changes stat wise, the recipes were changed to fit the new system. The Spinneret Fluid for silk, Marrow for leather, and Loam for Chain/Plate drop similarly to the template silk/pelt/ore drops only slightly rarer. The top 2 levels of ARMOR still have the skill up bonus that existed on those levels of old armor.

Template patterns are sold on vendors. For templates, you need a simple sewing needle, sold by same vendors. For armor, the pattern still comes from the Ancestral Book of XXX Armor. For symbols, the pattern comes from the books from the quests in your hometown. These quests changed a couple months back and the "collect" part was changed to receive "impressions" which you gain from killing the appropriate mob. The raw materials for the symbols are the same as for those used in the template and armor of that level.

Templates can be made in any kit/loam. Armor still needs cultural needle in a cultural kit.

Recipes cannot be learned through experimentation. The only way the tradeskill UI will list the combines is if you purchase and scribe the book. The vendors are set up to offer books based on your skill level so you may not be able to buy the top level book without a high skill. There are separate books for templates and for armor and for symbols.

Good info. I plan to use the templates to skill up my tailoring.

I have never done cultural tailoring anytime, so would anybody know how I find out about get the cultural needle / sewing kit? Well, I guess I wouldn't need it anyway, since I can just tinker the armor.

[Aldier]

I think tinkering required a cultural needle as well.

The cultural needles and sewing kits are crafted. They did not change. Check what drop you need for your race.

Templates do not use a cultural needle.