Best places to tradeskill

[Sorn]

With Velious on its way and with it the Coldain Prayer Shawl quests, it's about time to brush up on those tradeskills!

Where are the best places to skill up? I'm talking places where zoning is kept to a minimum and vendors close to each other have most or all of the supplies required to practice.

I know in EQ, supplies are scattered across the continents and it's an exercise in chain link-clicking on the wiki if you want to know where something can be found. Currently the best guide for a tradeskill that I've read is the Baking guide, which describes vendor locations and gives you the cheapest and most efficient way to get your Baking skill up. (Whoever wrote that, I love you.) I decided to make this post because I recently noticed that some places are way easier than others to get supplies and practice. It can be really frustrating if you can't find the vendors you need or have to do a lot of traveling to get basic items.

Here are my contributions. Feel free to add on if I'm missing something. I followed the guides on the wiki pages for the most part.

Brewing
Overall best location: Freeport
Estimated cost: <=100pp? Didn't keep track.

Heady Kiolas (triv 46) - EAST FREEPORT - Trader's Holiday has your kiola saps and bottles (and brew barrel), Freeport Inn has your water flasks.
Heady Kiolas (triv 46) - KELETHIN - Barkeep Tuviena in the tavern on the platform just below the Kelethin bank has packets of kiola sap and bottles, while the neighboring Goods shop has water flasks. The brew barrel is a few platforms away, next to the Druid guild (Soldiers of Tunare).

Fish Wine (triv 68) - EAST FREEPORT - Port Authority has all the fresh fish you could ever want, while the innkeepers in Freeport Inn have water flasks. Close by, there's a brew barrel and bottles sold by the Alemakers in Trader's Holiday. Another brew barrel is present in Seafarer's Roost.
Fish Wine (triv 68) - KELETHIN & FELWITHE - If you want to stay in GFay for fish wine, just head to Felwithe and drop by the fishmongers by the lake near the South Felwithe zoneline for fresh fish. Barkeep Tuviena and her friends have everything else you need.
(Neither dwarfs nor wood elves sell fish.)

Ol'Tujim's Fierce Brew (triv 135) - WEST FREEPORT - Krystin Charcoal next to the North Freeport zone (closest to the gates) has all your supplies. The brew barrel is outside the Hogcaller's Inn.
Ol'Tujim's Fierce Brew (triv 135) - SOUTH KALADIM - Hanamaf Darkfoam in Pub Kal (first building on the left you come to as you enter the left side of South Kaladim) has everything, plus there's a brew barrel next to him. (If you are in Kaladim to brew, know that all the water flasks are in North Kaladim with the smithing supplies.)

Faydwer Shaker (triv 188) - EAST FREEPORT - Trader's Holiday and Velithe & Bardo's Imported Goods have all four spirits, casks, and a brew barrel.
(Haven't tried doing this recipe on Faydwer.)

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Blacksmithing (not a part of the prayer shawl quest but it's something I know about, so here it is)
Overall best location: Kaladim
Estimated cost: Uh...hmm. A lot after you hit banded. Before...maybe 100pp?

Metal bits (triv 21) - NORTH KALADIM - Find the miners in the mine, they have a fabulous selection of ores. More importantly, Harnoff Splitrock sells water flasks right next to Bloarn Norkhitter, who sells small pieces of ore. The dwarfs know where it's at for smithing. Everhot Forge (#8 on the wiki map) has a forge just outside. There's another forge in South Kaladim by Redfist's Metals (#4 on the wiki map). The dwarven cultural forge is also out here, so take note of which one is which.

Scalers (triv 41) - NORTH/SOUTH KALADIM & BUTCHERBLOCK MOUNTAINS - Now that you've got a bunch of metal bits, you just need water flasks and scaler molds. You know where to find the water flasks. The scaler molds can be found a short distance away from the entrance of Kaladim, in the third building along the path to GFay (#4 on the wiki map). Look for Nalda Griststone.

Large Lanterns (triv 68) - NORTH/SOUTH KALADIM & BUTCHERBLOCK MOUNTAINS - Water flasks available at the usual spot, and Nalda Griststone has the lantern casing mold for you. Hanamaf Darkfoam in Pub Kal (first building on the left you come to as you enter the left side of South Kaladim) has your bottles.

Skewers (triv 115) - NORTH/SOUTH KALADIM & BUTCHERBLOCK MOUNTAINS - Nalda Griststone has your skewer molds! She's my favorite.

Banded (triv 135, 168, & 175) - KELETHIN - Here's where it gets really expensive (and heavy!). You can buy sheet metal or make it*. In the city made entirely of wood, we happen to have both a forge and a merchant who sells the molds and sheet metal necessary for smithing. Merchant Linolyen at the POD lift has your stuff. To get to the forge, use the middle path from the newbie lift platform and it will be on the next platform (#17 on the wiki map). If you can't find any closer water flask vendors, head to the Goods shop between the bank and the POD lift.

*Sheet metal (triv 56) - NORTH KALADIM - All you need is a forge, 2 small bricks of ore, and a water flask for one sheet metal. Bloarn Norkhitter and Harnoff Splitrock are your guys.

If you want to do ornate chain, you'll have to get drops of HQ ore off mobs according to the wiki (maybe? I haven't gotten to this part yet). Fine plate requires some tailoring for the leather padding, but once you get that, you can head to Kaladim to get a smithy hammer and medium quality ore from Harnoff Splitrock, and Felwithe for the plate molds from Nerrisia Irontree.

[Banthabolt]

Thanks for this! I vaguely remember the Shawl quest but I do remember spending many days Brewing.

[zanderklocke]

Highpass rules for pottery.

[Sorn]

Originally Posted by zanderklocke [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Highpass rules for pottery.

It does?? Whoa! :O Details! Vendors? Locations?

[curtischoy]

I'm sure that you are trying to get your skills up BEFORE Velious, but once it releases I remember Thurgadin being the best spot in game for tradeskills.

[Sorn]

Originally Posted by curtischoy [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I'm sure that you are trying to get your skills up BEFORE Velious, but once it releases I remember Thurgadin being the best spot in game for tradeskills.

My line of thought is that there are other places that are easier to get to (and are available in game right now), if anyone wants to work on tradeskills for any reason. Velious just happens to be a good incentive for most players because of the shawl quests.

When I can get into Thurgadin, I'll investigate. I think I've only been there a handful of times on Live back in the day.

[Swish]

You can do a LOT of brewing upstairs in Highkeep - its where I did mine on live. The dealers sell all the supplies you need to get from 1-130ish i think.

[sambal]

I think Rivervale is the best for brewing. You can buy from the merchant on the second floor of the bar, close the window, and brew from the same spot. Everything (even fish) is sold either in the bar, or right outside of it. from 0 to max.

[Crawdad]

Going to echo Highkeep for Brewing and Pottery. ..spent many, many hours there skilling up pottery for Vial of Velium Vapors and brewing because I was a boozehound.

Edit:
Pottery Guide, all available in Highkeep.
Brewing Guide, I'd probably just buy fish in Freeport/WC and head to Highkeep for combines, then move on to Ol' Tujim and then Mino hero brew.

Another bonus for Highkeep is that all the vendors are pretty much right next to one another.. because I doubt you'll have enough bag space for all the combines at once. Thurg is a great place for tradeskills too, everything right next to one another with an easy to make gate potion.

Can't speak on any other tradeskills as I only maxed brewing, pottery and baking on live... and Baking is already criminally simple to max in Freeport then Greater+Lesser Faydark.

[Shodo]

Blacksmithing - East Freeport. Can buy all of your materials here, until fine steel plate when you have to make the sheets in North Freeport. Also multiple forges available.

Tailoring - Can also be done in East Freeport (at least up through Cured Silk - brewing supplies are just around the corner from the tailor).

The real kicker for both: proximity to the tunnel. You can buy materials/sell wares (especially handy for tailoring if you run out of silk or need to buy pelts). Also, if you're not a caster and/or your wis/int are fairly low, grabbing a SoW and a str/dex buff from a high level shaman at the tunnel will help you immensely. Even if you are using int/wis, the SoW and str will get you around town a lot faster (especially if you're carrying heavy smithing stuff).