New guide available: Smithing for Tailors

[Zeralenn]

I recently finished a major smithing guide -- THE ECONOMICAL SMITH -- an 83-page PDFon skilling up in blacksmithing.

I just finished a smaller guide (about 40 pages) called SMITHING FOR TAILORS, containing some relevant material from THE ECONOMICAL SMITH specifically to help tailors who aren't necessarily interested in smithing as an end in itself, but rather how best to get their smithing to necessary levels to support tailoring.

Not only does it list ways to progress in smithing, but lets you know exactly how far you need to get your smithing to achieve 95% success in the pieces you need to accomplish -- without having to buy a smithing geerlok and depending on your race and your goals.

The guide is totally free and available for download:

Smithing for Tailors, Edition 1.0

Feedback, comments, corrections, and nitpicking always welcome.

...Zera

[Myrron]

Looks good! A few comments though:

To be honest, it pretty much is a repeat of the smithing guide with a few "Stop here" notices inserted by race. Most people starting tailoring now tend to use the woven mandrake and greyhopper armor routes to tailor their way to 95 so saving things like studs and steel boning is almost moot. Heck, I have hear of people starting to skill up on banded armor right after 21 because they have the money to blow. (Ow!) If I were you, I would just insert the "Stop here" messages in your original smithing guide and include a new section discussing tailoring; it would be easier than printing out 40 more pages of a guide someone already has 80 pages of. (I am assuming every smith out there has your new smithing guide, hehe.) In other words, combine the two guides.

My other comment: I would actually argue in favor of using sewing kits (halfling) and fletching kits (wood-elf) for skilling up. In your guide, you recommend against them. As a wood elf, I began on the kits at 135 and stopped at 162 and spent a small fraction of the cost I would have spent in ornate chain and fine plate. In addition, it saves more leather padding for future fine plate later (if you don't start fine plate until the 160's, you use less padding than starting in the 140's). Not only are the kits cheaper with everything store-bought, but padding is saved. Yes, you are correct in that molds and mithril not stacking is annoying, and the kits themselves are containers, but if you are looking to save money and padding-farming time, there simply is no better route in my opinion. Even better, when you finally do begin fine plate, you skill is so high you rarely lose money in failures! The period of fine plate you skip with the kits is the period where you have the most failures anyway, and the price of one FP attempt is about the same as 4 kit attempts. Just a thought for you in the next version. I can't speak for all smiths, but I do know of other wood-elf smiths who enjoyed the kits despite the non-stacking issue.

Anyway, just some comments for you if you want. I also agree that your smithing guide is the most detailed one I have seen.

--Myrron

[Sinfulchaos]

sweet!!!

wow this is a sweet guide... I for one as a up and commin smither (tailoring being my major) appreciate the hard work put into this!!
I love the layout and the writing style.. many thanks


Peace,
Sin

[Zeralenn]

LMy other comment: I would actually argue in favor of using sewing kits (halfling) and fletching kits (wood-elf) for skilling up.

Actually, Edition 3 of the full guide has nothing about Vale sewing kits at all. I'm actually going to add that into Edition 4, and I will recommend those. It only has two molds, not three. I guess I find the multiple molds very confusing.

I still think the fletching kits are a pain ... but it is in there as an alternative.

...Zera

[Kayxiuz]

Looks good! A few comments though:

To be honest, it pretty much is a repeat of the smithing guide with a few "Stop here" notices inserted by race. Most people starting tailoring now tend to use the woven mandrake and greyhopper armor routes to tailor their way to 95 so saving things like studs and steel boning is almost moot. Heck, I have hear of people starting to skill up on banded armor right after 21 because they have the money to blow. (Ow!) If I were you, I would just insert the "Stop here" messages in your original smithing guide and include a new section discussing tailoring; it would be easier than printing out 40 more pages of a guide someone already has 80 pages of. (I am assuming every smith out there has your new smithing guide, hehe.) In other words, combine the two guides.

--Myrron

I disagree i think for me. I think is great waht was done because i will also skill up in Smithing. therefore if i already made some parts it saves money. Is a great guide. and i am already going over the smithing and the Smithing for tailors as well.

Great Piece of Work!

[lamini]

whats gonna happen is you're gonna eventually have to make a "SMithing for the tailor, brewer, jewelcrafter, fletcher"... because near the end of the game (there is none) just about everything requires tradeskills, ie arrows, gate potions, ability drinks/foods.

I do only have 1 suggestion. While your documents were excellent, i still had to look for where ingredients were. Nothing worse than reading an interesting document seems to have it all when you ask yourself... now where did this come from? As far as smithing goes.. im still stuck at 177, which is what it was over 2rs ago. Thanks for the info.

[Hezden]

Hey does anyone have any HQ bear skin?

Hey i'm at everfrost if you have some please send me a tell in the game or reply to my topic thanx and kick but all![/quote]

[Calabar]

Though I’ve read your first guide, (Thank You, Thank You, Thank You), I have yet to read your second guide. But I would like to comment on making the wood elf fletching kits. These were the last items my druid made before he stopped working on smithing. And the reason he stopped was because of the cost of making plate. Granted, if you succeed making plate the sell back price is very good. But failures can be costly, depending on the size of your bank account. My druid had very little in the way of funds, so he chose to make the kits.

Yes, without a doubt, they are a pain to make. First, you have to have a lot of empty bags for the items that don’t stack. And if that wasn’t enough of a pain you have to run between two different cities for supplies. But since I didn’t have much money and still wanted to raise my smithing I was willing to put out the effort. Also, as stated earlier, these kits are containers and therefore hard to sell. I didn’t even bother. What I did was use them for bank containers for several of my characters. I’d camp my characters by the forge and after my druid dropped a pile of kits on the ground I’d log my other characters in and pick them up. After I used all the kits I could I started shouting out to the zone that I was dropping FREE 10 slot containers on the ground by the cultural forge. I can honestly say that not a single fletching kit rotted and there were a lot of happy low-level characters in the zone.

If a player has plenty of money then going to all this trouble may not be worth it. But if money is truly a limiting factor for smithing, then I feel the fletching kits are a viable option for wood elf smiths.

[Heartsong_Steelsoul]

Hezden - people cannot send you tells, unless you identify what server you are on. There are over 30 servers currently available to play on.