Crystalline Silk farming?

[garfo]

Maybe other Shawl-Questers out there will know this: what's the best place to farm Crystalline Silk (https://wiki.project1999.com/Crystalline_Silk)?

I was thinking Velks so that I could at least get some exp in (I'm level 55), but if the silk is known to drop more frequently in CC or elsewhere, I'm up for that too.

[Maliant]

CC is best, seem to drop quite a bit more frequently.

[snyder43]

I think the drop rate between Velks and CC is about the same. The biggest difference is the level of the spiders in CC are much lower, so you can plow through more in a shorter period of time and not have to worry about splitting the loot with others. Since you're looking for exp, too, it may just be best to group in Velks; it can take you all the way to 60.

[Lysander]

You have to go to Velks for Shawl 5 anyways so you may as well do it there provided your skill is already high enough to combine the NODROP thread from Velks.

I strongly suggest though that you switch to Wu's instead though, since it's much faster and easier than trying to do Crystalline Silk. Even if you farm low level silk it takes forever in CC and people want 200p a stack for it and other ridiculous prices. I began Wu's at around skill 115 and it was way better than suffering through more crystalline silk gloves combines which require 4 silk (read: 40 plat) for one attempt. I cannot even imagine doing the shirt with 6 silk per attempt. You will bleed money or waste lots of time farming.

People practically give away spider silk so you will have your tailoring at 158 very soon if you do Wu's earlier.

[snyder43]

You have to go to Velks for Shawl 5 anyways so you may as well do it there provided your skill is already high enough to combine the NODROP thread from Velks.

I strongly suggest though that you switch to Wu's instead though, since it's much faster and easier than trying to do Crystalline Silk. Even if you farm low level silk it takes forever in CC and people want 200p a stack for it and other ridiculous prices. I began Wu's at around skill 115 and it was way better than suffering through more crystalline silk gloves combines which require 4 silk (read: 40 plat) for one attempt. I cannot even imagine doing the shirt with 6 silk per attempt. You will bleed money or waste lots of time farming.

People practically give away spider silk so you will have your tailoring at 158 very soon if you do Wu's earlier.

I'm gonna change my answer; listen to what Lysander said. EC the crystalline silk you get in Velks and use it to buy stuff for Wu's.

[garfo]

You have to go to Velks for Shawl 5 anyways so you may as well do it there provided your skill is already high enough to combine the NODROP thread from Velks.

I strongly suggest though that you switch to Wu's instead though, since it's much faster and easier than trying to do Crystalline Silk. Even if you farm low level silk it takes forever in CC and people want 200p a stack for it and other ridiculous prices. I began Wu's at around skill 115 and it was way better than suffering through more crystalline silk gloves combines which require 4 silk (read: 40 plat) for one attempt. I cannot even imagine doing the shirt with 6 silk per attempt. You will bleed money or waste lots of time farming.

People practically give away spider silk so you will have your tailoring at 158 very soon if you do Wu's earlier.

The tailoring guide on the wiki suggests doing Crystalline Silk for quite a few items before switching to Wu's -- do you recommend going straight from Raw/Cured Silk to Wu's?

**Edit: farming animal skins feels like it'll be tortuously slow as compared to farming in CC or grouping in Velks, right?

[Lysander]

The tailoring guide on the wiki suggests doing Crystalline Silk for quite a few items before switching to Wu's -- do you recommend going straight from Raw/Cured Silk to Wu's?

**Edit: farming animal skins feels like it'll be tortuously slow as compared to farming in CC or grouping in Velks, right?

If you want to save money yes. 1 vial of viscous mana is about 5.5 p, 1 silk swatch is 1p (10p per stack for silk at worst, usually cheaper), and 4 heady kiola is probably about 1p as well. So I would guess that a Wu's combine is around 8p, which beats even Crystalline silk Mask's cost at 20p+ 1p for the thread.

I did the crystalline masks because I didn't know, but if I would do it again i still might do it since it's less annoying than spamming so much heady kiola. But for the higher level combines after 100, your chance to skill up greatly decrease--I found that I was getting skill ups very often at skill level 80 and 90, usually one every two or three combines. At skill level 110-120 you will start getting combines much more rarely, so it is more important to be economical with your combines.

Definitely do Wu's sash instead of crystalline gloves or shirts.

EDIT: Also people will buy your Wu's gear if you really want to hustle it. Nobody will ever buy your crystalline silk masks. Wu's also resells to merchants much better, I believe 4p. Crystalline silk gloves resell for like 5g. Since Wu's resells so much it is very attractive.

[Maliant]

Spiders in CC drop like 2 silks per, velks i can go 10 spiders without getting a silk.

[loramin]

Maybe other Shawl-Questers out there will know this: what's the best place to farm Crystalline Silk (https://wiki.project1999.com/Crystalline_Silk)?

I was thinking Velks so that I could at least get some exp in (I'm level 55), but if the silk is known to drop more frequently in CC or elsewhere, I'm up for that too.

Personally I did Crystal Caverns, got all the crystal silk I needed, then went to Velks for that part and got a bunch I didn't need ... and only did Wu's when the wiki told me to.

I say all that mainly to say "you absolutely can do it that way" ... but I think everyone else makes some pretty good points about just cutting straight to Wu's.

However, there is one thing no one's mentioned: the easiest Wu's item trivials at 131, but the easiest Crystalline Silk item trivials at 115. Why does this matter?

Well, on this server successes have a greater chance of giving you a skill-up than failures. This means that every Crystalline Silk combine you do will have an increased skill-up chance of ... well I'm too lazy to do the math, but the point is you'll have a better chance of success because of the lower trivial, which will translate into a better chance of skill-up.

(I swear this wasn't the case on live, but because EQTraders content is hidden from the Wayback machine I haven't been able to find any proof.)

Wu's is still cheaper, but if you want to save yourself some wrist strain by doing less combines overall, Crystalline Silk might save you from a bit (not a lot) of RSI.

[Frudrura]

How much would people pay per silk or per stack for this stuff?

[Foxplay]

Definitely CC

I did it for tailoring on my druid. Just root each spider and click epic. Epic dot is just enough to kill all the spiders except the queen and the named retainer guy.

Alternative a pet class or melee can chew them up fast

[Immok]

I second the CC route, it didn't take long clearing the tunnel back and forth to get the silks I needed.