Worth raising Blacksmithing/Tailoring for a newbie?

[Flash]

I'm out farming pelts and silk in EC at the moment, and have been sharpening rusty weapons to get my blacksmith up (at 16) now. I plan on getting my smith/tailoring as high as I can without making an investment (I.E farming the mats myself).

How long would it take me, unfunded, to get into the 100s from scratch, and is it worth my time to be doing this right now? I really wanna be high enough to make a full suit of Wu's Fighting Armor before WC, as I'll need the upgrade by then.

[Zigfreed]

Are you having fun doing it? Then yes. Personally I would rather poke hot needles under my toenails.

I completely agree that you should be really high to do this though.

[Flash]

Am I having fun doing it? Zig, I'm having fun doing anything and everything in Everquest. So that would be a yes.

But I'm leveling up at the same time, since spiders are blue to me, so wouldn't it be in my best interests to do both if they dovetail with eachother?

[Zigfreed]

If you like it then yeah, heck yeah! I think EQ tradeskills are horrific though! Plus I think you level much faster than you get the materials for the skills.

[Flash]

Maybe so, but I have zero money and need a way to make it. I need to acquire Wu's Fighting Armor at an early level.

I could get there if there's enough Spiderlings to feast on in EC.

[Rasah]

You need 2 silks to make a silk swatch. Let's say you get a skillup every 5 combines. You need to be ~120 or so to make a full set of Wu's. (you will have many failures on the very high stuff). I seriously doubt you will be able to farm 60 stacks of spider silks while you are still "at an early level." Keep in mind that Wu's combines require Vials of Viscous mana that have reagent costs that are ~5p, plus the enchanter aggravation.

You are better off farming bears and cats and selling the HQ pelts in the tunnel. It will be cheaper in the long run.

[phobus]

You'll almost certainly spend more on HQ pelts, mana vials, and other materials to get your tailoring into the 120s than you'd have spent just buying a full set of Wu's in the first place.

But, you said you want to farm all the materials yourself. Okay, let's look at the math: it'll take around 5 combines to get a skill-up (probably more if you have low WIS/INT, which you will as a Monk). You start on reinforced armor around level 60 and it doesn't trivial until 108. How long will it take you to farm ~250 HQ pelts? Then you can start on attempting Wu's, which is even more expensive to make.

My advice: farm whatever sells well, save up for a set of Wu's. Make your own cured silk in the meantime if you want; that will serve you just fine until you can save the 450pp or so.

And don't forget to buy weapons. :)

[Thoughtseize]

1) Farm "Spider Silk" and "High Quality Bear Skins" save your ruined pelts.
2) Sell HQ Bear Skins in Tunnel for ~20pp and buy more stacks of Spider Silk for 5-8pp each.
3) Make Silk Swatches until 15 - save them
4) Use ruined pelts to make patchwork armor until 26
5) Make cured silk masks until ~60 or so (higher if you have silks)
6) Farm/Buy HQ Bear Skins and make Handmade Backpacks - profit of 30pp or more for each one you sell

Not sure what the demand is for bags now but I was selling 20+ bags in an hour or so of tunnel time a day about a year ago.

7) Buy Wu's - you won't make back your investment on the skillups needed to warrant the advancement if that's all you are after

[Estu]

It's not worth raising smithing/tailoring unless you specifically find it fun and want to make gear for OTHER PLAYERS (not yourself). If you just want gear for yourself and/or money, the best way to go is to farm and sell. Bone chips sell for 5-10pp a stack and there are decaying skeletons en masse in North Ro. HQ bear pelts sell for 10-20pp each. Spiderling silk sells for 20-40pp a stack; the best place to farm it is in a certain underground crypt in Field of Bone at level ~5 or higher. Spider silk sells for 5-10pp a stack; the best place to farm it is in East Karana at level ~20 or higher. Spend a bunch of time farming up this stuff and you'll buy your set of Wu's much faster and easier than if you tried to make it yourself.

Alternatively, just level up normally and you'll make enough money selling research components to merchants (runes, pages, words) and/or dungeon loot to players to buy equipment by your 20s or 30s.

[mala]

tailoring/smithing are not worth it at this point in the game, for any reason.

[djdownward]

The only reason I'm spending any time on my tradeskills is for velious, however unlikely it is.

COLDAIN RING WAR! THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!

[toddfx]

I suggest brewing. It is fun, unique (compared to most other tradeskills), and you end up with lots of booze. You brew a lot of neat drinks along the way, and it is a lot of fun to hand them out to people. I for one keep at least 3 - 4 stacks of oddball drinks on me at all times, which I highly enjoy handing out to all of my porting customers. Getting people drunk off of Lothran's Ancient Absinthe makes for some good small talk and repeat customers!

http://norrathbrewing.wordpress.com/

[Eldaran]

I suggest brewing. It is fun, unique (compared to most other tradeskills), and you end up with lots of booze. You brew a lot of neat drinks along the way, and it is a lot of fun to hand them out to people. I for one keep at least 3 - 4 stacks of oddball drinks on me at all times, which I highly enjoy handing out to all of my porting customers. Getting people drunk off of Lothran's Ancient Absinthe makes for some good small talk and repeat customers!

http://norrathbrewing.wordpress.com/

haha you are awesome :D

[Gwence]

The only reason I'm spending any time on my tradeskills is for velious, however unlikely it is.

COLDAIN RING WAR! THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!

9th ring quest has 3 tradeskill items, 1 of which is trivial at level 1, other 2 can be made by other players. AKA you don't need any amount of tradeskills to do the coldain ring quest.

[Snaggles]

Pottery is handy at some point (for most people). 120 skill isn't anything to brag about though.

Vial of Velium Vapors
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=5329

[Buellen]

as other have stated just farm supplies that other tradeskiller will need, but dont forget to DUMPSTER DIVE

what is dumpster diving you ask ? well old name was merchant mining.

since p1999 is running old school interface merchants have more spaces that have stuff than what you see when they are full. It does require a start up amount of plate to do merhcant mining /dumpster diving , but can be extremely rewarding.

rules of dumpster diving
1) buy all the low cost items that are currently in merhcant windows if you see -- in colume of number of items the merhcant has unlimitd amounts of these dont wast money buyinthose. exit merchant and open interface with merhcant again you will see bunch of new items at bottom of list rinse repeat till you find what your looking for.

2) to check if merhant has some of the item you are looking for embty a few slots of the merhcant window and then click and sell 1 of the item you are looking for. IF the item does not appear in the currently embty window then HE HAS AT LEAST 1 MORE OF THAT ITEM. If the single item you sell pops into one of the embty windows then he has non but one you just sold him.

3) learn to know when a merchant has been dumbster dived when you open interface. good example if their is only expensive items in most of the merhcant windows it probably been dumbster diver recently.



Dumpster diving hots spots :

qeynos gate merchant and 2 near the gate you can literaly dumbster diver 1400 plus bonechips here. it can get a bit expensive but if you are looking to pl you next toon to level 9 or 10 fast in kaladim bonechip quest it might be worth it.


Commons inns: tons upon tons of low , med , high qualilty skins. most folks who play on this server will keep all these an try to sell them but twinks impatient folks willl just sell them to merchant.


Greaterfay dark list merchants <these are closest to lift and as such closest place folks will sell most comon too.> Pads / cb belts bonechips wolf skins of all qualities. can get a bit expensive if server has not been reset in a while.

TAILORS SECRET REVEALED

permafrost 2 merchant right near zone line to halas: These guys have consistently had over 100 skins of various quality mostly bear and wolf. my record is 29 high quality bear skin of these merhcants.


Buellen the ever solo ranger

[Flash]

Blacksmith 68 (made lanterns), tailoring 28 (made patchwork, working on studded leather).