Elemental Bow Cams ...

[uncleshmoozo]

My tinkering alt is currently skilling up on the Gunthak Geerloks (Alchemy, Pestle, Quill, and finally the Clockwork Contraptions) and I'm looking ahead to what I will be doing after that. These Geerloks will get him to 236, and among the next options that look viable after that are the elemental bow cams.

I see that others are selling some of them in the bazaar on my server, and I notice that there are two types for sale in the bazaar today -- Molten Metal and Planar Steel. I can see that the Planar Steel cams are selling for significantly more than the Molten Metal cams. Is that a normal situation, and if so, can anybody tell me why? Is the metal used for those harder to get? More rare? Or are they simply used to make a more valuable bow?

Also, are there any other options after the Geerloks that others suggest?

[Kakg]

It really depends on the supply and demand on your server. I can only talk from experience on my server Stromm, but some of these obeservations might help you undertand your server.

I've only recently gotten flagged for Fire and I don't expect to get any of the other Elemental flags for quite some time so I rely on the bazaar market as do many tinkers.

On Stromm blocks of molten ore to make Molten Metal Bow cams are pretty common. The Plane of Fire is a common target for guilds to gear up in and its also a very popular area for higher levels to XP in since the AA rates are better than than a lot of other areas. Hence there is a lot more Molten ore coming out of PoF than the Immaculate steel from Plane of Earth. I can sometimes pick up several stacks of Molten Ore for as low as 25pp per block. While I might have to wait weeks for someone to sell Immaculate Steel at a sensible price.

Because of that the tinkers on Stromm use molten metal bow cams as the main skillup route to 300 and flood the market, I currently have only one stack on my trader but have a further 10 stacks on a bank mule if I can find anyone prepared to buy any.

Planar Steel Bow Cams are much rarer on Stromm and are made for money but sell much more often than the molten bow cams. Their popularity over the cheaper molten bow cams is because ther planar steel bow cam' are used to make the Stonewood Compound Bow which has +2 hp regen and a more preferred spread of stats than the other elemental crafted bows.

Wind Metal Bow cams command premium prices because the wind metal blocks required to make them rarely come onto market on Stromm and they are used for the Aid Grimmel quest.

In the two years of Stromm's existance E'cian Ice has only appeared twice on our bazaar that I've seen and I've only ever seen a single E'cian bow cam for sale in that time. Very, very rare but frankly not surprising as the bow they make only have a mana sieve proc and IMHO isn't worth the extra effort and expense when you could have the Stonewood bow much easier.

[Footsore]

The probably reason in price difference between the Planar and Molten metal bow cams is the rarity between the other components needed to make the respective bows, and therefore the demand for the bow cams - you have a small chance of someone wanting a Planar cam but an even smaller chance of someone wanting a molten metal cam. Vegerog Vine seems to be more common than Fiend Gut. In truth though, I don't think there is enough demand for either to plan on selling all that you'll make skilling up that way.

You'll probably find the clockwork grease need for the bow cam is more rare then immaculate steel and molten metal ore.

Check out collapsed toolkit to 242. They don't stack and are lore, so a "run" with resale isn't really an option, though.

Anizok's Gauze Press to 262 if you can get to the gnome merchant in PoI.

I hear the Cheirometric Lockpick Device has a good tribute value, though I haven't verified it for myself.

When you say “alt” I’m presuming your alt isn’t high enough level to complete the quests for the new DoN combines, so basically you are looking at living in the Plane of Innovation. Or, alternatively, camping the bazaar for PoI drops.

Of course, Clockwork Observers is an option I suppose, but I didn’t use it.

[Brodybeard]

Also, are there any other options after the Geerloks that others suggest?

I agree with Kakg. You can often find Molten Metal Ore on vendors. Immaculate Steel Ore is fairly common in the Bazaar. Chunks of Wind Metal are available in the Bazaar at high costs and E'cian Ice is even worse.

Not much to make... Crab Crackers to 288 if you can find Knuckle Joints. PoP Clockwork armor pieces or Woks to 300. My gnome is still too low level to make Master level DoN tinkered armor for skill-ups.

[Wyrdlan]

The problem with DON (god I'm starting to sound like a whiner) is that you STILL end up farming POI whether you like it or not. Alot of the "optimal" skill up route has a great deal with what level you are, where you hunt, and how much you are willing to spend.

Step 1: Once you get to 236, here's the route I'd personally suggest, farm POI for coiled springs, putting knuckle joints, ball bearings, clockwork grease (bring a forager), and pinions aside for later.

Step 2: The next thing to ask yourself, do you tailor or have access to a gnome tailor friend? If so, farm nightmare arachnid silk and do the 1 swatch items to 248 using the innovative gears you farmed in step 1.

Step 3: Using the ball bearings and pinions you farmed in step 1, go to 262 on the gauze press.

Step 4: Sell soul for grease, purchase bricks of molten ore, lose ~100pp a combine making so many molten cams your eyes cross to 282.

Step 5: The only thing that looks remotely feasible from 282 to 300 is clockwork legs/sleeves or metalofiber robes. At least the clockwork observer tributes well.

This is, of course, the "cheapest" way, doing the work yourself. The actually route I'm taking is farming ebon shards and dumping massive amounts of money in the bazaar to buy anything I can put my hands on that isn't trivial yet, which tends to mean a whole bunch of clockwork grease and molten ore. The nice thing about the ore is it sells to venders for almost nothing, even though they charge 80ish buy it back, so you don't have to offer alot for people to sell it to you in barter mode.

[Aryse Andenter]

I found coiled springs were actually fairly readily available in the bazaar (actually more so than clockwork grease) and so I did collapsed toolkits until they trivialed. I blew through what pinions and ball bearings I had working on Anizok's, but ran out of those way too fast for my taste. My advice would be however to put off bow cams until you have exhausted some of the other options like collapsed and anizok's, since you will still have lots of bow cams to make even after doing those.

[Evram2]

Since many people seem to imply its difficult, nowadays, almost any 65+ solo class can kill thier way to Anizok pretty easily. Worst case its a very quick duo grind.
Frankly, if you have a FD class, you can either use 100k horse, or Flight of Eagles, train your way to Anizok, FD. Rinse. Repeat.
After spending more hours than I care to remember farming my epic 1.5 drop in PoI, I definately think most people would be surprised at how easy this is nowadays.

After some bad luck on skillups post 250 since the cap removal, I've made it all the way to 256 :-( Planning on training my way to Anizok and gauze pressing my way to 262 soon.

Biggest block at the moment to 300 seems to be the increasing difficulty in obtaining Blue Diamonds. Since diamonds/BDs are required for high end JC, it seems that people are buying up every one they can get thier hands on, making it very hard to get large quantities of them.

[Aryse Andenter]

Frankly, if you have a FD class, you can either use 100k horse, or Flight of Eagles, train your way to Anizok, FD. Rinse. Repeat.
After spending more hours than I care to remember farming my epic 1.5 drop in PoI, I definately think most people would be surprised at how easy this is nowadays.

Heh, I don't even use my drog to get there. I usually have a rune on, but if you are invis most of the mobs only agro behind you, so they are trying to catch up to you to hit you rather than hitting you as you run up to them. I've gone through untouched, and even when I do get hit invising through I've yet to have my Rune broken. If people do find this hard to get through maybe I should be picking up a few extra for re-sale in the bazaar

FD classes and rogues are golden to get there, other classes can get there very easily with a little killing now. Or maybe try one of the new FD drinks?

[Rissenn]

The reason is that for PoFire bows, you need fiend guts to make the bowstring. These are gotten from Blazzax the Omnifiend or from any model with the "fiend"-look on the way to kill Fennin Ro and it is a triggered event.

For PoEarth there are regular mobs that drop the vegerog vine needed, and if you zone into PoEb, they drop quite a bit.


So it is a lot easier to make a PoEarth bow than a PoFire bow.

[Ueauvan]

my main is a ranger fletcher and i created a tinker alt on one of my other acounts specifically to get 250 tinkering to gear up the guild with ele bows after we got flagged

for some twisted reason instead if just 16th i levelled my enc to 55 /boggle where he also maxed research to 200. the gnome went from 210 to 250 exclusively on cams. even after everyone had ele bows and their alts he was used for the aid grimel ear portion for air cams.

he made all 4 types of cams, the only problem was grease which is a pain. the resultant cams were used thus; earth to the chars in guild, 1 of each type to all guild rangers mains and alts, air werent tried after all rangers had one to ensure we could do aid grimel without a raid farming air, fire were usually sold and water used for tribute either guild or personal

since then he has made nothing because there is nothing useful a tinker can make. rather like my fletcher who is now 300, there is no point having the skill as there is nothing to make