GM in tailoring

[Cinamdar]

I've decided to start the journey to GM in tailoring. I've read most of the available guides and realize the journey will be difficult. My ultimate goal is to be able to create my own set of Serene Steelweave armor and use the skill to help other followers of Quellious. I'm a 55 Erudite Paladin with Quellious as my diety.

There are two solutions to acquiring the needed tailoring items to obtain skill increases. If one has a rather large
stockpile of plat they can purchase some of the items that are needed at the lower sill levels, this will allow the person to obtain skill increases faster than the person who chooses to go out and kill mobs to obtain the required materials. Since I don't currently have a large stockpile of plat I will take the longer but less expensive path.

There exist more than one newbie guide to tailoring and I'm a little confused as to which to use. Any suggestions?

With KEI my WIS is a rather low 146. I don't have the plat to buy high WIS items but is there a spell that stacks with KEI
that will provide an additional boost to WIS? I do understand that the higher of WIS/INT does affect the speed at which you receive skill ups.

How important is using a geerlock during the low levels of the skill? Is the geerlock more of a high-skill level addition?

Does there exist a document anywhere that gives the best zone for obtaining a tailoring item? For example, I see that for my first 25 (approx.) points I will need a lot of spider silks, but what zone is best to use, since spider silks are found in multiple zones.

My current plan is to use wyvern hides to obtain the last 50 points. This is all guesswork since I don't know if the wyvern hides are rare. Most of the other mob dropped items that could be used during the last 50 points seem even more difficult to obtain if the player wants to slay the mobs without help.

Assuming that I devote 45 hours/week to tailoring do you have a rough estimate on how much time I will need to invest to reach my goal?

Any suggestions are welcomed, but please no words of discouragement

[Delfontes]

Um...

Maybe tailoring forum?

[Lilosh]

Asking for tailoring advice without words of discouragement, is akin to asking for pizza without Mozerella Cheese and Crust.

And GMing tailoring with 146 WIS is silly. You will EASILY spend 10-40 times as much money then you would if you bought a good set of WIS Gear. At 250-255 WIS, expect a skillup, on average, every 20 combines.

There will be times when you go more then 100 combines without a skillup. Accept this fact. 180ish-210ish will be a hell range,

Tailoring is expensive. If you do not have "Large stockpiles of plat", then Tailoring will be a long, painful road.


-Lilosh

[Chenier]

Oh com'on guys...be nice. =)

Wis: You do need to get your wisdom up - the amount you spend in some gear to get your wis up will more than pay for itself as you get higher skill. Some very inexpensive items I would look for are Velium Ruby Veil and Velium Jasper Rings. Perhaps if you posted your magelo, we can help you out with some suggestions for "tradeskilling gear".

+Wis spell to stack with KEI: Nope. None of the +Wis/Int spells stack with KEI (or C4 or C5). Better to get some gear.

When to start using the geerlok: You will want one eventually, trust me. But when to start using one is sort of up to you. A geerlok adds 5% to your base skill, which effects whether or not you will be successfully on the combine (it does nothing for improving skill itself). The more successes you have, the more you have to sell back to NPC merchants or in the bazaar to recoup the cost of tradeskilling components. Personally, I use a geerlok for every single combine I do, even if it's a combine that 200 points trivial to my current skill - you always have a % to fail every combine. So, up to you really.

There are plenty of discussions here as to where to farm components. I suggest you use the search function and do some research yourself. =)

Plan for the last 50: You've got a long way to go til then. If you have wyven hides, certainly save them, but you won't even think about combining them for a long time, especially if you're going to be farming all/most of your components to get to a higher lvl.

"Assuming that I devote 45 hours/week to tailoring do you have a rough estimate on how much time I will need to invest to reach my goal?"

Without a fat nest egg to power yourself along, depends on how fast you farm, how fast you make heady kiolas, etc. etc. etc. Btw: you do know you will also need to get brewing and smithing up to 100ish to start and pottery and jewelry up later to 100ish to do tailoring, right? Most tailors have those skills much higher than 100 to reduce failures (that and we're nuts and do all skills).

Encouragement: tailoring has glorious moments of reward and many, many hours of evil, cruel failures and farming. We live for the glorious moments - successful combines, skill ups, finding a gazillion spider silks on a NPC merchant for virtually "pennies". We are tight knit group - we share the pain, we share the glory. =)

As a side note: if this doesn't sound like fun, I would highly suggest you just save up the money to buy the armor you want from another tradeskiller on your server. It will FAR less expensive to spend 10, 20 or 30kpp or whatever it costs to buy the armor than to do the skill yourself. But if you try tailoring and decide you like it, we'll be here for you. =)

[Cinamdar]

Chenier thanks for the info you provided. It's been so long since I mistakenly used (low AC and high wis gear) I had forgot about rings that increase your WIS. Started my char in Oct. 2000 but have been away from the game for periods of time. btw - in my sig is my magelo. If you have any additional suggestions after viewing my magelo I would be glad to read them.

I knew I would need to be skilled in other tradeskills. Just another small obstacle

[eepjr24]

Gear

Easy stuff:

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=1821 (7 wis)
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=7095 X2 (6 wis)
(No drop, but cake to get at your level)
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=4999 (6 wis)
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=8158 (10 wis)
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=7159 (4 wis)
(No drop, but good xp camp at your level)
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=1051 (7 wis)

Slightly more expensive:
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=4794 (9 wis)
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=4242 X2 (14 wis)
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=950 (7 wis)
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=4488 (4 wis)

These will add about 74 wis. Some of them would be decent upgrades for your current gear, some just wis gear. There may be cheaper alternatives out there, and better for a pally, these are stuff that was on my DE cleric that you could wear. YMMV, hope this helps at least a bit.

Gallowsward, 52 DE Cleric, 181 tailor.
Aegis Wolves

[Heartsong_Steelsoul]

Yepyep, you can put together a "just-for-wis" kit a lot cheaper - my husband is a tradeskillin' dwarven pally and with KEI gets his wisdom to 248. That includes wearing the dwarven paladin newbie quest boots, even, because he can't find any cheap boots with wisdom.

Ro Helm and Ro Sleeves are good for wisdom
Tunare idol should have wisdom
Polished bone bracer or chipped bone bracer for wrists
Velium ruby veil for eight wis on face
Gauntlets of the Black
Lots of cheap chest slot items with at least a little wisdom - foreman's tunic, bloodstained tunic...
Adamantite epolets on the shoulders, those would be easy for you to camp for - they drop a lot, we've been hunting lower guk lately, so I know.
Mace of hte Fallen Crusader
Charred Guardian Shield

... nice back slot, nice nice belt.... if you didn't have aegis of life I'd recommend Shield of the Silent Watch (also 10 wis backslot shield)

food that gives wisdom is good - catnip, qeynos tea, picnic baskets, etc...

How's that for help?

[Cinamdar]

Heartsong and Gallowsward your input will be put to good use. Rather ironic, how many of those items I've sold in the distant past, but at that time I didn't know I would someday want to start a tradeskill.

Still not certain reaching 250 WIS will be possible, but I will increase it as much as reasonably possible. I'm guessing that a tradeskiller will receive skill ups quicker with increased WIS even if their WIS is 200 rather than 255.

You've been truly helpful.

[Myrron]

To your geerlok question:

I'm 183 and haven't seen the need for one yet. For the low levels (cured silk, Crystalline silk, Wu's) the success rate is decent enough that I would prefer having the additional wisdom boost a weapon could give you. After 158 you will probably end up doing acrylia studded armor (geerlok nice for successes but without it you begin around 50% anyway), solstice robes (geerlok NOT helpful a bit, you actually want failures), and possibly some of those new LoY recipes since you are an erudite. Even now at 183 I have a decent success rate on acrylia reinforced, though I figure I may switch and begin using a geerlok around the 190-200 range. Definitely do not use a geerlok at the sub-158 level if you have an opportunity to boost your wisdom instead, especially given your current wisdom. My advice, though some could disagree.

To your wyvern hide thoughts:

I see a lot of hides for sale on vendors. Buy them whenever you can, can't beat 13pp each. So keep an eye out.

To which guide to use:

I'm biased. Sorry.

--Myrron

[PinyonTreedotter]

I believe the Bard Int/Wis song (Cassindra's Elegy, level 44, +12 Wisdom, Intelligence) stacks with KEI. Find a friendly bard who is doing tradeskills herself and work on it together -- particularly if you offer to pay for her KEI.

There is also food and drink to add 10.

You should still be able to get some good skillups with a moderate wisdom until 120+. At that time, the cost in pp or time to get components makes it better to max your wisdom.

BTW, there is a newbie quest in Rivervale for a Wisdom Potion (Insight). This does not stack with KEI, but might be a cheaper alternative. Look on the vendors near the brew barrel and in the Fool's Gold for people who have sold it.

If you are in a guild, you might be able to borrow equipment while you tradeskill.

Finally, when choosing items for normal use, keep an eye out for wisdom. The Solstice Earring is very nice for tradeskilling, and I know of lvl 60+ warriors who choose it for the HPs. The Tae Ew shield is also that way. Neither of these is inexpensive, but they are good items in their own right.

Good luck. You will enjoy and be frustrated by your tailoring quest.

[Chenier]

Oh yah, I would highly suggest in investing in the solstice earrling - every stat on it is something you can use. =)

[Raiyaeq]

Stats is important when doing ANY tradeskills.

Tailoring is either expensive or you have to have a lot of patient. For low level tailoring, you can make wu's all the way up to 158. If you farm everything yourself and make your own temper, the cost isn't too bad.

After that, farm acrylia and hoppers, save your flawless until you max out at 188 from superb rockhopper hides.

Once you hit 188, you have 2 options here
1. acrylia reinforced armor
2. velium tailoring

I've seen a lot more skill gain from acryila reinforced than from velium tailoring. Velium tailoring cost isn't bad if you farm your own pelts/velium (hail, crystal caverns). The cost of coldain velium temper depends on how rich you are, you can either make it yourself, or buy it from the vendor in thurgadin.

There's no secret to tailoring, you either farm, or you have to be rich and buy material from bazaar.

From 163 to 249 (in 1.5 month), I've spent 100k+, that's by doing partial farming, exchange material by doing smithing combines for ppl (I also have a 250 smith), and buy stuff when there's reasonable price items in bazaar.

Good luck on your tailoring advanture!

[scarbrowed]

Just a note of encouragement. I'm currently at 160 WIS on my druid. I'm racing through Wu's at a decent pace. I've never even gone 20 combines for a skill point yet.

My baking did not suffer until over 200. (Now I do 100 combines for one skill point.) My hope is that I can get my tailoring to 160 on Wu's and LoY ribbons, and then make myself acrylia studded for big WIS increases.

Just wanted you to know, you can get through Wu's with not much more WIS than you have now.

[Ndainye]

You only really want to worry about geerloks on items that you want to succed at (ie want to sell). Since your sell back rate on most skill up items is so low you are better off with wis gear for skill ups than geerlok for sucesses. I carry a geerlok for those times that people want me to combine for them and for when I'm doing attempts that I hope to sell on my trader. I think I originally purchased the geerlok for one of the shawl combines though (I have a full set of shawl skill geerloks). Probably won't need to worry about geerlok until 200+ skill.

[Cinamdar]

The support from this community has been fantastic. I now have my first 36 skill points in tailoring behind me and will now work on smithing so that I can make my own studs.