Cheaper Skill Up Path -- Wu's or Ribbons?

[Caethe Darkraven]

HI there,

Im wondering which path for skilling up is cheaper? Assuming I farm the silk's for Wu's obviously.

Basically I am a very very broke 54 Ranger, who want's to eventually get to 1750. So Im looking to conserve money wherever possible.

So I was wondering which path was cheaper in the end. Assuming average success and skill up rates.

Thanks a ton for your help!

~Caethe DarkRaven ~Sacred Destiny~
~54th Pathfinder and Aspiring Trader of E'ci

[Silound]

Expensive part of Wu's is mana vials, costing at best, 8p some gp/sp to make each, and that's assuming you get them made free. Heady Kiolas are cheap to make, running at about 5p per stack at worst to make. Silks if you farm ar free of course. So if you round up, you're looking at 9p(vial) + 1p (pattern and HK cost) = 10p per combine. All Wu's sells abck for 5p and some change.

Gold ribbons are like 31p per, and after dye sells back for 14p. Dye however, is costly to buy, and difficult to gather components for in a timely fashion. But, if you fail too many ribbons...

This is another good case of Time/Money v. Money/Time. Which can you farm more attempts for in one hour? Wu's or Ribbons? That includes option of farming cash and buying materials for combines.

Silound
Personally, my cleric and I did Wu's then the last of gold ribbons, then Solstice robes

Edit:: Fixed incorrect price on gold ribbons and confirmed sellback price is around 14p each.

[Pockets FullOfGold]

You could, if you have an inclination to, make all the poison vials needed to make the Viscous Mana yourself with Pottery. I have found that the best place to farm the clay needed for the Poison Vial to be Beholder Maze. This will save you over 1 PP per Poison Vial from Merchants since you say you are short on funds. As well, this will give you the chance to work up your Pottery Skill if it's not already.

Just a suggestion.

Pockets FullOfGold

[Draggar]

One way to cut down..

If one of your guildmates is working on pottery, farm in EK while gatherin silks, kill lots of cats, give him the MQ and HQ cat pelts and buy them the components needed to make poison vials. That will seriously cut down on the price of vials, and they get free skillups.

[Eumerin]

Expensive part of Wu's is mana vials, costing at best, 8p some gp/sp to make each, and that's assuming you get them made free. Heady Kiolas are cheap to make, running at about 5p per stack at worst to make. Silks if you farm ar free of course. So if you round up, you're looking at 9p(vial) + 1p (pattern and HK cost) = 10p per combine. All Wu's sells abck for 5p and some change.

Gold ribbons are like 16p per, and after dye sells back for 14p. Dye however, is costly to buy, and difficult to gather components for in a timely fashion. But, if you fail too many ribbons...

Er... No.

Gold Ribbons run at 31p and change at best price that I've been able to get (Erudite paladin, modified charisma of 140). That's the price I paid for them last night. The silver ribbons might run for 16p, as I'm not sure about the price of those. The sell back price you listed sounds about right for the gold ribbons, however.

[Hibashira]

Ribbons are not cheap. I've spend 16k on them from Wu trivial before the platinum ribbon trivial. Not cheap at all.

[Silound]

Apologies, my numbers were indeed off, I must have been quoting cheapest ribbon prices. Sorry for misleading info, no clue how I screwed that up.

Silound

[Kantia]

I got 6 points for about 6k spent on platinum ribbons, from 177 to 183. I then switched to Acrylia Studded, which was pretty much paying for itself from the pieces that sell (albeit slowly) in the bazaar.

[Moraganth]

To make the thickened mana for wu's, it's 125 pp per stack.. so a hair over 6 pp per. Remeber to get the charisma up.

[Mad Baker Hobbitt]

This got me to thinking.... the mana part... it costs 6p per vial to make? I trivialed the last of Wu's this past Saturday. After buying all of the vials I could find in the bazaar, I got to thinking (too late of course) that maybe I should have just made the stuff myself.

I know the pearl is probably the most expensive portion of the process, but it would almost seem to me that it is just easier (money permitting) to buy the darn things in bazaar for 9p ea. I would imagine a stack is somewhat time consuming to make? I have not played an enchanter, so I do not know the timeframe on making the vials of mana....

Hopperr

[Skinnyminnie]

Ahem... Mr Mad Baker Man.. I do 'believe' you know an enchanter who would be willing to make mana vials for you if you asked nicely Just for future reference!
I haven't had my chanter make vials in a while but from what I remember, it does take a bit of time. Not enough for me personally to demand a huge markup, or even a donation for just a few.
Anyone on BB that needs anything chanterly made (enchanted metals, mana vials, etc) can drop me a line... asking politely, of course

Skinnyminnie Reynwalker 61 Druid of Karana
Lilbitbad Baenlyl 58 Dark Elven Enchanter

[Catranizi]

At least with ribbons you have "some" chance to resell them to player, there is no way you are going to sell Wu armor.

[Britneyy]

In quite a few zones like Firona Vie they will sell you vials you can use for your reagents for the mana vials, Wu's is probably the cheapest, along with least time involved.

[Mad Baker Hobbitt]

I took Wu's to the end on Wednesday, then went the ribbon route. approximately 25,000 plat later (people on BB were GOUGING on dye prices... but I wanted to finish) Ribbons are now trivial.

I am putting this in thread to make a point. The dyes for the ribbons are incredibly easy to make. I was paying 1000p a stack in bazaar the day I decided to trivialize the ribbons, but any foraging class can get the components needed (and easily) to make the dyes.

My final thought on the matter is, do Wu's till trivial, and then if speed is what you want... and money is not an issue, go for the ribbons.... Just remember, Platinum ribbons go for well over 2,000 plat a stack.

Hopperr
GM Baker, GM Brewer, GM Fletcher, 200 Fishing, 180 Smithing, 198 Tailor, 190 Potter

[Jaasper]

Before deciding what route to take figure out your "Cash Rate" is. This is the money you can make per hour, sustainable. Then use this rate to determine if it is better to camp cash or items.

I camped acrylia/hoppers for 2 days (12 hrs) and got enough items to make 40 combines (if you farm this stuff yourself this route is almost free). But I realized that I could have made enough money in that 12 hrs to buy many more celestial robes (which take time to put togher even if you buy everything).

Sell back for anything used for level up is almost zero. Too many people are leveling up trades (like me) and we have to do too too many items per point.