My experience creating a GM Tinker from scratch ...

[FelishannaSecretlight]

OOC.

This is the history of Silissa, a gnomish wizard lady, born to be a Tinker, created on 4th June 2004.

I needed her, because I could find no tinkers amongst those I knew well, and I had to find a Tinker of some skill to make Wind Metal Bow cams, to allow me to progress with the Aid Grimel quest.

I used the information on the EQTraders quick-trivial list and the recipes linked to decide on the path I would take up through the tradeskill, and this is how I progressed. I hope it may be useful for anyone else choosing to do the same.

04/06/2004 Silissa is born, level 1 gnome wizard. Felishanna equipped her with various old items lieing in the bank of several others over the last few years, and managed to get her to an INT of 217.

06/06/2004 With Felishanna helping her, Silissa reaches level 16, and her hunting career is over. She headed to PoK, and started the simpler tinkering combines.

07/06/2004 Between the previous day and this day, using only store-bought items for speed, she progressed along the following recipes:

50 Starting Skill
50-75 Standard Bow Cams
75-122 Powered Gloves
122-135 Tinkered Catapults.

Note that she did these all with an INT of 217 (no buffs), but using a Clockwork Contraption (Tinkering geerlok) I picked up in the bazaar for her).

Then, with a few acrylia pieces I had sitting around, added to by a few of the very cheapest ones in the bazaar, she made 135-138 on Geerlok Hammers. Now, the progress up to this point I did not record the number of combines I made, so I have no data to present up to this point. However, note that it was very fast, and not especially costly (by my standards anyway).

From this point on, I kept detailed records. Note that on some days, I had more than one session, so I split the sessions on to seperate lines.

08/06/2004 Geerlok Hammers, 64 combines, 16 points, 138 -> 154
09/06/2004 Geerlok Hammers, 52 combines, 11 points, 154 -> 165
09/06/2004 Geerlok Hammers, 42 combines, 5 points, 165 -> 170
11/06/2004 Geerlok Hammers, 94 combines, 6 points, 170 -> 176
12/06/2004 Geerlok Hammers, 104 combines, 12 points, 176 -> 188
15/06/2004 Geerlok Hammers, 174 combines, 6 points, 188 -> 194

Almost all of the acrylia I was using I had farmed myself (well, Mage Suzanna had, to be precise) in Acrylia Caverns, and at this point, she picked up a nice INT mask from a named down there whilst she was farming, so Silissa had her INT increased from 217 to 226. For the remaining sessions below, she did her combines with INT 226 + geerlok (no buffs on any occasions).

17/06/2004 Geerlok Hammers, 91 combines, 8 points, 194 -> 202
20/06/2004 Geerlok Hammers, 100 combines, 7 points, 202 -> 209
21/06/2004 Clockwork Contraptions, 78 combines, 6 points, 209 -> 215

That last session above was on bazaar-bought Waterlogged Riggings (~20pp each), but now that Geerlok Hammers were trivial, Suzanna switched to farming Gunthak beach. The following combines are about 40% self-farmed and about 60% bazaar-bought.

22/06/2004 Alchemy Sets, 18 combines, 3 points, 215 -> 218
22/06/2004 Research Quills, 62 combines, 4 points, 218 -> 222
22/06/2004 Research Quills, 59 combines, 0 points
22/06/2004 Clockwork Contraptions, 26 combines, 2 points, 222 -> 224
22/06/2004 Research Quills, 73 combines, 3 points, 224 -> 227
22/06/2004 Clockwork Contraptions, 42 combines, 2 points, 227 -> 229
24/06/2004 Research Quills, 56 combines, 0 points
25/06/2004 Research Quills, 10 combines, 3 points, 229 -> 232
25/06/2004 Clockwork Contraptions, 48 combines, 4 points, 232 -> 236

This was last night. I still have some Silver Tipped Quills and Waterlogged Rigging left, but these recipes were then trivial. I had bought a few coiled springs over the weeks, so I used those:

25/06/2004 Collapsed Toolboxes, 28 combines, 1 point, 236 -> 237

Ok, time to test the water with Fire Cams, since I had been collecting a few of the bricks.

25/06/2004 Molten Metal Bow Cams, 25 combines, 2 points, 237 -> 239.

Since I had had 23/25 combine successes, it was time to risk the 4 Chunks of Wind Metal I had been kindly given by the guild I raid with (Glade Knights) to try to progress the Aid Grimel quest.

25/06/2004 Wind Metal Bow Cams, 4 combines, 1 point, 239 -> 240. (3/4 successes)

So there you have it, Silissa is 240 Tinker, which with a geerlok, is at the 252 cap.

Oh, I might mention, Felishanna completed her Arcane Signet today using those cams, making me very happy indeed.

[Lupoman]

congrats!!

I will probably make a few gnomes upset by saying congrats as you started a gnome souley to tinker. But alas, i am doing the same. If you see my sig below i am no stranger to the tradeskills, so it was logical that i start a tinker soley for tinkering some of my other tradeskil subcombines.

To each his own. By tinkerer is lvl 13, and soon will be on the way to tinkerdom as u have. Thanks for the guide and i have a cpl of questions-

1) how much did it cost, (about). I know you did about half the farming yourself so i am curious.

2) where did ya lvl the tinker from 12-16?

[FelishannaSecretlight]

OOC.

I too am a career tradeskiller, starting Smithing in her teen levels back in the Spring of 2000. Felishanna has natural 250 in six trades and 227 in Tailoring; being a High Elf, of course Tinkering was not available to her. So, it was only natural, when I needed the skill, to also acquire it as best I could myself. Regardless, we are all free to tradeskill as we choose, and I hope my data might help others who may also wish to create a Tinker.

Silissa was totally powerleveled by Felishanna. She completed 5 to 11 in Crushbone and 11 to 16 in Unrest. This was unashamedly an exercise with a single purpose, to obtain a high-skill Tinker in as short a time as possible, but fitting around my real life and my normal in-game grouping/raiding with Felishanna.

I never calculated the cost, as it did not seem expensive to me, so I was not concerned with it. However, I have two level 65 characters; for those who have not, that might be something that is more restrictive I do appreciate. However, you could work it out easily for 138 to 240, if you wanted, since I gave the number of combines, and if you wanted to check the vendor price at the top CHA, as almost all components on almost all combines are vendor-bought. The only exceptions were:

- acrylia pieces, that I farmed ~80-90%, but bazaar-bought ~10-20% at ~20-25pp per piece.
- maneater roots, all bazaar-bought at ~20pp each.
- silver tipped quills, which I'd estimate I farmed 40% and bought 60% at ~20pp each.
- waterlogged rigging, which I'd estimate I farmed 30% and bought 70% at ~20-25pp each.
- coiled springs, all bazaar-bought at ~30pp each.
- molten metal bricks, all farmed myself (both Felishanna and Suzanna are Plane of Fire flagged).
- clockwork grease, all bazaar-bought at about ~50pp each (note: 2 grease per jar).

Hope that helps.

Felishanna.