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Ranger Tradeskilling Guide for Shawl Quests

I. Introduction
II. Prime Stat Considerations
III. Gear and AAs to get the higest prime stat
IV. Fletching
V. Smithing
VI. Brewing
VII. Tailoring
VIII. Pottery
IX. Jewel Craft
X. Baking


I. Introduction

This is a guide primarily intended for Rangers. Other classes may or may not find it useful. Reasonable effort has been made to ensure the information is accurate, but as in all things you read, I’m sure there are mistakes. The most common type mistake will be those where I think I know the stat of an item and I am too lazy to look it up.The second most common type I cannot control---that being the information I’ve pulled from Web sources that applies to current/past versions of PC EQ but doesn’t apply to our Mac version of EQ. As I have only played Mac EQ, I have no way of determining whether the information I have read about TSing faithfully applys to our version. Nothing is going to be mentioned about Alchemy, Poison Making, Spell Research, Tinkering, or Fishing as I basically know nothing about them. This guide will only refer to Fletching, Smithing, Brewing, Pottery, Jewel Craft, Baking, Tailoring and Pottery. Emphasis will be placed on describing how to get the minimum skill levels necessary to complete all shawls throguh Coldain Shawl #8 and for fletching---how to GM it. The emphasis, wherever it is possible, has been placed on BUYING stuff for your combines rather than farming stuff for them even if it costs more. Wait till you have cash and a high prime stat and you will save TREMENDOUS trouble for yourself tradeskilling for skillups.

It is also assumed that whoever is doing tradeskills will spend 21 training points (max that is allowed) to get to 21 skill before doing any combines for skillups.

II. Prime Statistic used for skilling up a trade skill.

First the important stuff.

Wisdom or Intelligence (whichever is higher) can be used for any and all tradeskilling.

Dexterity can only be used for fletching.

Strength can ony be used for Smithing.

By “used” I mean that if your dexterity is higher than your intelligence or wisdom and you are trying to skillup fletching, your dexterity stat will be used in the formula that determines whether you get a skillup when you try a combine you have not trivialed.

What does trivial mean? In tradeskilling lingo, to “trivial” something means that you have effectively mastered making that item, cannot learn anything else by continuing to make more of that item, and will no longer get skillups if you continue making that item. All items have a skill level at which they “trivial”.

What is the formula that determines whether you succeed at getting a skillup? Ok, I admit I do not know the formula. This is what I do know. The tradeskill calculator at EQTraders.com has this URL:

http://www.eqtraders.com/calculators/ma ... 0000000000

Launch the calculator and plug in your current skill level, modifier (5% if you are holding a geerlock), the trivial of the item and the prime stat you are using. The tradeskill difficulty is provided by Macsbeth from Castersrealm info and repeated below:

Alchemy 4
Baking 3 (estimate)
Brewing 3 (estimate)
Fletching 4 (estimated by Glimi---fletching sucks)
Jewelcraft 4 (estimate)
Poison 2
Pottery 4 (estimate)
Smithing 2
Tailoring 2
Tinkering 2

For the EQTraders calculator 2 = easy, 3 = medium, 4 = hard

Rangers do NOT get Tradeskilling AAs to decrease failure rate so leave that box checked as “NO”.

Now click the “Submit” button and the calculator will spit out your chance to succeed in making the item and your chance of getting a skillup on success, on failure and overall. The “overall” chance at success means that if you were to combine like 1000 items at the input skill level, modifier, trivial and prime stat, on average, you would get the listed success rate for skillups.
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Let me give a couple of examples:

At one point, Glimi had 202 fletching, a geerlock, dexterity of 205 and was trying to make shadow tipped acrylia arrows (trivial at 268). Tradeskill difficulty is set to hard and tradeskill AA is set to “NO”. I click submit and the output is:

Adjusted skill = 212 (geerlocks add 5% to base skill rounded down, 5% of 202 = 10, 202 + 10 = 212 for adjusted skill level)

Chance of success = 62.5% (this is how often you will make the arrows

Chance of skillup on success = 4.91%

Chance of skillup on failure = 2.46%

Overall chance of a skillup if you do hundreds of combines with these stats = 3.99%

Ok, 3.99% chance means on average Glimi should get a skillup every 25 attempts (approximately)
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What happens if the prime stat is 305 to the overall success rate at getting skillups with all other stats the same?

Overall chance of a skillup if you do hundreds of combines with these stats = 6.09%
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What happens if the prime stat is 105 to the overall success rate at getting skillups with all other stats the same?

Overall chance of a skillup if you do hundreds of combines with these stats = 1.89%
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The following things from the above examples should be obvious:

A. That your chance at getting a skillup on a successful combine is 2X the chance of getting a skillup if you fail. This means in general you should try and make items close to your trivial to maximize your chance to get a skillup as you will succeed in making them more often.

B. That you want the highest possible “prime” stat before you begin tradeskilling. This means that you want to assemble “prime” stat gear that you put on just to tradeskill in.

III. Gear and AAs to increase your prime stat.

If you are a ranger and do not want to waste a lot of time and effort farming for combines and then getting a very low skillup rate when you do the combines, I suggest you forgo most tradeskilling UNTIL you are high level and have acquired a very good set of tradeskilling gear.

At level 65 your prime stat can reach 280 as a ranger. If you do the 5 Planar Power AAs your stat cap is raised to 305, the maximum for a ranger.

You could even do wisdom AAs, but really those are like not something you wanna waste precious AAs on till you have like 300 of them done.

There are 2 exceptions to this general rule.

1) Fletching. Because you can use dexterity as your prime stat for fletching, and you should have quite high dexterity being a ranger, fletching to about 202 is OK before maxing out your prime stat with extra gear and then pushing to GM fletching.

2) Pottery. EVERY ranger that is level 46 (raid level) has to be able to make Thurgadin Gate potions (called Vials of Velium Vapors) that trivial at 122 skill. So you need to get pottery to 122 ASAP after hitting level 46.

Gearing up for tradeskilling.

If you use wisdom for tradeskilling, get KEI before doing your combines. It adds 25 wisdom and lasts a minimum of 2 hr 30 min. After getting KEI, put on your tradeskilling gear. For rangers that get serious about tradeskilling, you really have to use wisdom. By serious, I mean you want to GM 1 or more tradeskills other than just fletching. Dexterity is only good for fletching. If you are fletching, and using dexterity, get a beastlord or shammy to buff your dexterity before beginning.

Here is an example of tradeskilling gear that any Ranger that plans ahead and works toward it early on can acquire. At least, they can acquire the vast majority of it.

1) Body: Emerald Dragonscale Tunic (20 wisdom--scale drops from Wuoshi in WL)
2) Wrist: Bracelet of Sense (15 wisdom--drops in UP mainly from Gantru)
3) Wrist: Coldain Military Wristguard (6 wisdom--quest item--requires help from someone with non-KoS giant faction)
4) Finger: Velium Jasper Ring (7 wisdom---tradeskill item)
5) Finger: Band of the Visionary (10 wisdom--drops from Sleepwalker in PoV)
6) Feet: Tigeraptor Boots (6 wisdom--tradeskill item)
7) Back: Acrylia Studded Cloak (10 wisdom--tradeskill item)
8) Range: Bow of Doom (10 wisdom--drops from Doomshade in UP)
9) Secondary Hand: Lodzial Shell Shield (10 wisdom---make from Lodi’s shell in ICO). A Shield of Bane Wardiing (20 wisdom, droppable shield quest out of Katta) would also rock as a secondary hand item.
10) Primary Hand: Either geerlock (zero wisdom, +5% skill) OR a Bone Handled Scimitar (8 wisdom--drops from Heirophant Grazan in The Grey) OR a Rock Studded Smasher (8 wisdom--drops from Stonehand in The Grey) or af Corrupted Shissar Warhammer (15 wisdom)
11) Head: Metal Linked Crown (5 wisdom--drops from various trash mobs in PoN)
12) Hands: Leaf Scale Gloves (5 wisdom--drops from various trash mobs in PoN) or Planestriders Gauntlets (5 wisdom--ornate chain glove pattern drops in BoT from Rorek)
13) Neck: Small Clockwork Talisman (5 wisdom--relatively easy quest out of PoK), Dustry Soriz Amulet (5 wisdom drops from Hilog in SSRA)
14) Shoulders: Blessed Coldain Prayer Shawl (8 wisdom--long, tradeskilling-intense quest out of Thurgadin). Drape of the Proud (5 wisdom) is a good second option.
15) Ear: Earring of the Solstice (8 wisdom--tradeskilling item)
16) Ear: Elf Bone Snout Ring (5 wisdom--drops in Fungus Grove as part of Beastlord Epic)
17) Face: Velium Ruby Veil (8 wisdom--tradeskill item)
18) Belt: Wurmhusk Harness (15 wisdom--drops from Burrower in Acrylia Caverns)
19) Planestrider’s Greaves (6 wisdom--made from oranate chain legging pattern that rarely drops in Bastion of Thunder from Oren Wavecrasher). Scale mesh leggings that drop from Rhagg 2 in SSRA have 5 wisdom and are another good choice.
20) Arms: Serpent Skin Armlet (8 wisdom--drops from Rhagg 1 in SSRA)

Finally, stat food. When I am about to tradeskill I force feed “till I would explode” regular food and water then switch to Justice Fruit Pies and Qeynos Afternoon tea to get an additional 10 total wisdom.

IV. Fletching

To GM fletching you need smithing 116 for required subcombines. You need fletching 168 for coldain shawl #7.

What you need to fletch for skillups is mindnumbingly easy to figure out. For each combine use 1 field point arrowhead + 1 large groove nock + 1 bundled wooden arrow shaft and ONE of the following fletching:

round cut fletching 16 trivial (Class 1 wood point)
parabolic cut fletching 46 trivial (Class 2 wood point)
shield cut fletching 82 trivial (Class 3 wood point)
wooden arrow vanes 122 trivial (Class 4 wood point)
bone arrow vanes 162 trivial (Class 5 wood point)
ceramic arrow vanes 202 trivial (Class 6 wood point)

For Coldain Shawl #7 you need fletching of 168 to trivial the combines. If you decide to continue fletching beyond 202, you can no longer purchase all elements needed for the combines to increase skill level. After 202, rangers virtually always switch to making acrylia shafted arrows that trivial at 268.

For acrylia shafted arrows, each combine requires one shield cut fletching (purchased), one small nock (purchased), one arrowhead of EITHER condensed flame, condensed ice or condensed shadow (farmed and smithed) and one acrylia arrow shaft (farmed and smithed).

Where do you get chunks of condensed shadow, flame or ice in quantity?

I have tried farming all 3 types and IMO the easiest to farm are chunks of condensed shadow. There are 2-3 basic sources:

1) In Shadeweavers Thicket zone there are a series of caves (shown on any map). Inside these caves spawn either Grol Baku (useless mobs that drop nothing) or Shak Dratha (these drop shadeling silks, shade silks and those ever important chunks of condensed shadow--all of which are actually useful). The chunks of condensed shadow are uncommon drops from the Shak but they only have like 600 HPs which means that you can mow them down super fast. The only problem is that they share the caves with the worthless Grol Baku and they alternate spawning for about half of each EQ day. The Shak Dratha spawn between about 9 pm and about 6 am each day (ie during darkness) and the Grol Baku spawn during the rest of the day.

What is the best way to farm the Shak? Killem and when they stop spawning and the Grol Baku start spawning, log your ranger, switch to an alt and come back about 10-12 EQ hours (1 EQ hour = 3 min real time) later and start killing again to get more Shak Dratha to spawn. The shade silks will be used by you to increase your tailoring from skill 1 to 82 and are used for Rallic packs so save those. The shadelings silks are used to make Rallic Packs and leather padding needed for smithing.

2) During any raid into Akeva Ruins quite a few chunks of condensed shadow drop from the trash mobs. Ask your raid leader for permission to loot the chunks. The Shak Dratha are much easier and faster to solo byt you can solo the trash mobs in AR for these drops if you want to.

3) Wizards. In days gone by, wizards used to quad toilers in ME and those mobs drop chunks of condensed shadow. So, if you can befriend a wizzy that is up and coming who is quadding toilers you can get hundreds of chunks easily from him/her.

Once you get your chunks of condensed shadow, place 1 chunk + 1 flask of water + 1 file in a forge and click combine and you receive 2 condensed shadow arrowheads and receive the file back.

This combine trivials at 116 so you have to spend some time skilling up smithing BEFORE you can increase fletching above 202 skill.

Files cannot be purchased. You have to smith one in a forge to create it. Put a file mold + 1 metal bit + 1 flask of water in a forge and combine. Trivial = 21. The file mold can be purchased from Tallis Paerk @ 70, 1390, Western trader building.

Arrow shaft molds can be purchased from Jaren Cloudchaser @ -87, 1465, Western trader building

Where do you get the acrylia arrow shafts from? You have to farm bricks of acrylia. Any size of acrylia is useful: small pieces, small bricks, large bricks or blocks can ALL be used. All have to be converted into small bricks before they can be made into acrylia arrow shafts. Here are the basic smithing combines (done in a forge):

3 small pieces of acrylia + 1 flask of water = 1 small brick of acrylia
(31 trivial)

1 large brick of acrylia + 1 smithing chisel = 1 small brick of acrylia
(31 trivial)

1 block of acrylia + 1 smithing chisel = 1 large brick of acrylia
(31 trivial)

The smithing chisel can be purchased from Tallis Paerk @ 70, 1390, Western trader building. By-the-way, druids, shamans, and beastlords cannot use a smithing chisel to chip down large bricks and blocks. Be sure to laugh at their smithing ineptitude next time you see them.

Acrylia arrow shafts are smithed in a forge by combining 1 small brick of acrylia + 1 flask of water + 1 arrow flask mold and yields 2 arrows. This trivials at 54 smithing.

Where do you farm acrylia? By far, IMO, the best place to farm acrylia is Acrylia Caverns zone. To farm it effectively as a Ranger (solo) you need to be level 65 (so all mobs are green and won’t add) and have Headshot AA skill (all mobs can be headshot) and KEI (or Planestriders Greaves that cast mana-free Earthen roots. Without KEI and/or Planestriders Greaves you will constantly go oom and have to stop to med). In addition, having a Primal Bow (that procs Avatar to increase your ATK and dex) and Guardian of the Forest AA skill will mean you “proc” headshot a lot more often and kill faster. Its bascially rooting and shooting, but it goes pretty fast with headshot.


V. Smithing

To GM fletching you need smithing 116. For Coldain shawl #8 you need smithing 187 (well 179 + 5% for a geerlock = 187 so that works as well)

Here is the fastest way I know of to get to 188 smithing:

1) Make forged javelins to 60 skill

Recipe is 1 javelin mold + 1 sheet metal + 1 flask of water and combine in a forge

Javelin molds can be purchased from Glena Quok @ 80, 320, Eastern trader building.

Sheet metal can be purchased from Kaleras Darkanvil @ -440, 560, Southeastern trader building

2) Make forged two handed swords to 75 skill

Recipe is 1 heavy steel blade mold + one hilt mold + 1 pommel mold + 1 sheet steel + 1 flask of water combined in a forge

All 3 molds can be purchased from Glena Quok @ 80, 320, Eastern trader building.

3) Banded bracer to 95 skill

Recipe is 1 bracer sectional mold + 1 sheet metal + 1 flask of water combined in a forge

Sheet metal and the bracer sectional mold can be purchased from Kaleras Darkanvil @ -440, 560, Southeastern trader building.

4) Banded helm to 106 skill

Recipe is 1 helm mold + 2 sheet metal + 1 flask of water combined in a forge

Sheet metal and the helm mold can be purchased from Kaleras Darkanvil @ -440, 560, Southeastern trader building.

5) Banded mail to 115 skill

Recipe is 1 mail sectional mold + 3 sheet metal + 1 flask of water combined in a forge

Sheet metal and the mail sectional mold can be purchased from Kaleras Darkanvil @ -440, 560, Southeastern trader building.

6) Ornate chain bracelet to 122 skill

Recipe is 1 chainmail bracelet pattern + 1 high quality metal ring + 1 silver bar + 1 smithy hammer + 1 flask of water combined in a forge.

The smithy hammer is returned on success or failure and can be purchased from Tallis Paerk @ 70, 1390, Western trader building.

The chainmail bracelet pattern can be purchased from Halena Paerk @ 73, 1375, Western trader building

Silver bars can be purchased from Audri Deepfacet @ 405, 755, Northern trader building

High quality metal rings have to be smithed. Combine 1 large brick of high quality ore + 1 file + 1 flask of water in a forge (Trivial = 46) to get 2 high quality rings and your file back

Large bricks of high quality ore can be purchased from Yeril Imsin @ 440, 1075, Northern trader building OR in Bazaar from Gliblixl Rocktok @ 155, -211, In stationary tradeskill containers hall OR in South Qeynos from Mar Sedder @ 535, -80, inside Tin Soldier

7) Ornate chain coif to 132 skill

Recipe is 1 chainmail coif pattern + 2 high quality metal rings + 1 silver bar + 1 smithy hammer + 1 flask of water combined in a forge.

The chainmail coif pattern can be purchased from Halena Paerk @ 73, 1375, Western trader building

8) Ornate chain mail to 142 skill

Recipe is 1 chainmail tunic pattern + 3 high quality metal rings + 1 silver bar + 1 smithy hammer + 1 flask of water combined in a forge.

The chainmail tunic pattern can be purchased from Halena Paerk @ 73, 1375, Western trader building

9) Ornate electrum chain mail to 148 skill

Recipe is 1 chainmail tunic pattern + 3 high quality metal rings + 1 electrum bar + 1 smithy hammer + 1 flask of water combined in a forge.

Electrum bars can be purchased from Audri Deepfacet @ 405, 755, Northern trader building

10) 9) Ornate gold chain mail to 155 skill

Recipe is 1 chainmail tunic pattern + 3 high quality metal rings + 1 gold bar + 1 smithy hammer + 1 flask of water combined in a forge.

Gold bars can be purchased from Audri Deepfacet @ 405, 755, Northern trader building

NOTE: You can skip STEPs 9) and 10) and go straight to 11). Steps 9 and 10 are quite expensive and there is a way to bypass them cheaply (without going straight to STEP 11) if you are doing the series of quests to get a Spirit Wracked Cord (quest is out of Chardok). To do the SWC quest you need ally faction with Brood Di’zok. To get that, you have to kill 2-3k gobbies in Droga and Nurga zones. Those mobs drop bricks of deathsteel ore and mugs of grinning goblin brew and Mt. death mineral salts. If you save all of those as you kill your 3k gobbies, you will have enough bricks, brew and salts to do more than a hundred combines (more likely 200 combines worth). Once you hit skill level 142 in STEP 8) above, you can move straight to Forged Deathsteel Bastard Swords (154 trivial).

Recipe is 1 dual-edge blade mold + 1 goblin temper + 1 hilt mold + 1 pommel mold + 1 sheet of deathsteel

Goblin temper is brewed in a brew barrel by combining 1 grinning goblin brew + 1 Mt. death mineral salt (trivial = 92, so you need to skillup brewing first as well)

Sheet of deathsteel is forged by combining 1 brick of deathsteel ore + 1 goblin temper in a forge (trivial = 62)


11) Fine plate bracer to 168 skill

Recipe is 1 leather padding + 1 medium quality folded sheet metal + plate bracer mold + 1 smithy hammer + 1 flask of water combined in a forge (trivial = 168)

The smithy hammer is returned on success or failure.

Leather padding is tailored by combining one silk thread (or one shade silk thread) + one low quality hide combined in a sewing kit or a loom (trivial = 31)

Silk thread is tailored from 2 spidering silks combined in a sewing kit or loom (trivial = 15)

Shade silk thread is tailored from 2 shadeling silks combined in a sewing kit or loom (trivial = 15). Shade silk thread may only work with low quality rockhopper hides to make leather padding.

By far the best source of spidering silks is Feerott zone. In the Northeast corner of the zone are 2 sets of “stonehendge-like” ruins. There are TONs of Jungle Spiders and Jungle Spiderlings running around each set of ruins and with tracking and a bow (1-shot kills mostly), you can farm about 120 spiderling silks an hour.

Shadeling silks will be a “by-product” of farming the Shak Dratha in Shadeweavers Thicket zone when you are farming chunks of condensed shadow to GM fletching. Save those and use them for the manufacture of leather padding, if and when, you decide to skillup smithing.

Low quality hides can be any type: cat, wolf, bear, and rockhopper hides all work. Medium quality hides can be “skinned-down” using a skinning knife in a sewing kit or loom. Place 1 med. qual hide + skinning knife in loom or kit and combine.

Rockhoppers in DSP zone are a popular source of low and med. qual hides becasue HQ, superb and flawless hides also drop there and those are needed to skillup tailoring. If you just want to get LQ and MQ (and some HQ) hides fast, Eastern Karana zone is a great place to farm cats. You can also farm Greyhoppers that ONLY drop LQ rockhopper hides.

Medium quality folded sheet metal is smithed in a forge by combining 1 medium quality block of ore + 1 smithy hammer + 1 flask of water (trivial = 36)

Blocks of medium quality ore can be purchased from Yeril Imsin @ 440, 1075, Northern trader building OR Kanio Paerk @ 13, 1365, Western trader building

Plate bracer molds can be purchased from Horil Imsin @ 390, 1085, Northern trader building Magnar Quok @ 45, 320, Eastern trader building

12) Fine plate helm to 179 skill

Recipe is 1 leather padding + 2 medium quality folded sheet metal + plate helm mold + 1 smithy hammer + 1 flask of water combined in a forge (trivial = 179)

Plate helm molds can be purchased from Horil Imsin @ 390, 1085, Northern trader building Magnar Quok @ 45, 320, Eastern trader building


13) Fine plate breastplate to 188 skill

Recipe is 1 leather padding + 3 medium quality folded sheet metal + breastplate mold + 1 smithy hammer + 1 flask of water combined in a forge (trivial = 188)

Breastplate molds can be purchased from Horil Imsin @ 390, 1085, Northern trader building Magnar Quok @ 45, 320, Eastern trader building

VI. Brewing

Brewing 162 is needed for Coldain Shawl #7

EVERYTHING you need to GM brewing can be purchased cheaply. It is by far the easiest and cheapest tradeskill to GM. Glimi currently has 240 skill and with 5% for geerlock = 252 or max skill.

Emphasis will be placed on skilling up making “brews” that you can use for tailoring combines. This is a practical way to kill 2 birds with one stone. You get to skill up brewing while making stuff you can use to skill up tailoring

1) Heady Paeala to 46 skill

Combine 1 bottle + 2 packets of paeala sap + 1 flask of water (trivial = 46)

Packets of paeala sap can be purchased from Sirekoth Eshe @ 102, 273, Eastern trader building

Heady Paealas are used in tailoring cured shade silk combines which trivial at 82 tailoring. This allows you to use your shade silks that you farmed from the Shak Dratha to skillup tailoriing. Man I love killing Shak Dratha

AND/OR

1) Heady Kiolas to 46 skill

Combine 1 bottle + 2 packets of kiola sap + 1 flask of water in a brew barrel (trivial = 46)

Packets of paeala sap can be purchased from Sabnie Blagard @ 75, 370, Inside Crow's Pub & Casino; wanders around a bit OR Ania Klephia @ 115, 360, Inside Crow's Pub & Casino

Heady Kiolass are used in tailoring Wu’s Fighting combines which trivial at 128 - 158 tailoring.

2) Paeala bark tanin to 102 skill

Combine 1 paeala bark + 1 flask of water in a brew barrel (trivial = 102)

Paeala bark can be purchased from Sirekoth Eshe @ 102, 273, Eastern trader building

Paeala bark tannin is used in acrylia studded and acrylia reinforced tailoring combines that vary from 188 to 242 trivial

3) Ol'tujim's Fierce Brew to 135 skill

Combine 1 barely + 1 malt + 1 yeast + 1 hops + 1 cask in a brew barrel (trivial = 135)

Everything needed (except water) can be purchased from Bargol Halith @ 82, 237, Eastern trader building OR Basur TuQual @ 105, 250, Eastern trader building

Drink it and increase your AT.

4) Faydwer Shaker to 188 skill

Combine 1 cask + 1 dwarven ale + 1 elven wine + 1 gnomish spirits + 1 mead in a brew barrel (trivial = 188)

Mead can be purchased from Peras Glickon @ -55, 1530, Western trader building

Gnomish Spirits can be purchased from Caden Zharik @ -340, 755, Southern trader building

And elven wine and dwarven ale can both be purchased from Barkeep Aanlawen @ 605, 690, In Tavern (EQAtlas platform #5)

Drink it and increase your AT.

5) Minotaur Hero’s Brew to 248 skill

Combine in a brew barrel 1 cask + 3 malt + 2 short beer + 2 water flask + 1 yeast

I usually do thes combines in Firiona Vie. Everything (except water) can be bought from Frothy and Samson who stand right next to each other and a brew barrel at -2975, 2975

Water can be purchased from Glinya Sweetpie @ -2750, 2550

Drink it and increase your AT.

VII. Tailoring

Max skill needed for Coldain Shawls is 208---but NO ONE skills up to 208 just to get to Coldain Shawl #8. For any practical purpose, 162 tailoring is enough for all the coldain shawl combines. You just have to accept that you will fail Shawl #6 a couple of times and plan accordingly when you are farming stuff for it.

1) Cured Shade Silk Sash to 82 skill

Combine 1 belt pattern + 2 heady paeala + 1 shade silk swatch in a loom or sewing kit (trivial = 82)

Shade silk swatches are made by combining 2 shade silks (farmed when you were getting chunks of condensed shadow---see above) in a loom or sewing kit (trivial = 15)

Some would recommend making studded masks first to 46 skill but since you will be farming Shak Dratha for chunks of condensed shadow you should have TONs of shade silks and might as well go straight to 82 skill level with them. Save the medium cat pelts and hopper hides (needed for studded masks) to be skinned down to LQ pelts for leather padding needed for higher level smithing combines (see above).

2) Crystalline silk collar to 102 skill

Combine 1 crystalline silk swatch + 1 silver thread + 1 gorget pattern in a loom or sewing kit (trivial 102)

Silver thread can be purchased in Thurgadin from Kyla Frostbeard @ -112, 229, 4, Inside Frostbeard's Furs & Leather

Gorget pattern (and all other tailoring patterns) can be purchased from Higwyn Matrick @ 120, 1480, Western trader building

Crysatalline silk swatches are made by combining 2 crystalline silks in a sewing kit or loom (trivial = 15) Crystalline silks are VERY easy to farm in the bottom of Crystal Caverns in the spider tunnel near the Geonid camp. When running to camp to farm spiders you can usually kill a few Ry’Gorr miners (for velium needed for Shawl #8) and you have time to clear geonid camp (for pp) while the spiders respawn after clearing them.


3) Crystalline silk cap to 115 skill

Combine 1 crystalline silk swatch + 1 silver thread + 1 cap pattern in a loom or sewing kit (trivial 115)

4) Crystalline silk sleeves to 124 skill

Combine 2 crystalline silk swatches+ 1 silver thread + 1 cap pattern in a loom or sewing kit (trivial 124)

5) Wu’s fighting mask to 135 skill

Combine 4 heady kiolas + 1 silk swatch + 1 mask pattern + 1 vial of viscous mana in a loom or sewing kit (trivial 135)

How to brew heady kiolas was described above under brewing.

A silk swatch is made by combining 2 spider silks in a loom or sewing kit (trivial = 16) The best source by far of spider silks is Eastern Karana where you kill mainly Crag Spiders that can drop up to 8 at a time.

Vial of Viscous Mana requires a chanter of at least level 12 caasting the spell thicken mana. The chanter has to have on their person 1 poison vial and 1 pearl for each vial of viscous mana they are to make.

6) Wu’s fighting mantle to 144 skill

Combine 4 heady kiolas + 1 silk swatch + 1 mantle pattern + 1 vial of viscous mana in a loom or sewing kit (trivial 144)

7) Wu’s fighting sleeves to 151 skill

Combine 4 heady kiolas + 2 silk swatch + 1 sleeve pattern + 1 vial of viscous mana in a loom or sewing kit (trivial 151)

8) Wu’s fighting shirt to 158 skill

Combine 4 heady kiolas + 3 silk swatch + 1 tunic pattern + 1 vial of viscous mana in a loom or sewing kit (trivial 158)

9) Acrylia studded mask to 188 skill

Combine 1 paeala bark tannin + 1 superb rockhopper hide + 1 acrylia stud + 1 mask pattern combined in a loom or sewing kit (trivial = 188)

How to brew paeala bark tannin was described in brewing above.

Superb rockhopper hides are farmed in the rockhopper caves in DSP.

Acrylia studs are made by combining 3 acrylia bits + 1 file + 1 water flask combined in a forge (trivial = 45)

Acrylia bits are made by combining 2 small pieces of acrylia + 1 flask of water in a forge (trivial = 21)

VIII. Pottery

You NEED 122 skill to make Thurgadin gate potions (Vials of Velium Vapors) and supposedly you need pottery 162 for coldain shawl #7. You can have someone with high pottery skill to the combines FOR you for shawl #7 and have them hand you the unfired rune for you to fire it in the kiln. The unfired rune is no drop. You only need 15 skill to trivial the “firing” combine. I’ll list how you can get to 162+ just in case you want too but if you have a potter do the hard combine, you only need about 21 skillin pottery to fire the rune.

How can you get to pottery 122 super fast and cheap? I never bothered doing the lower level combines---I just started with a 102 trivial combine.

1) Unfired small bowls to 102 skill

Combine 1 bowl sketch + 1 small block of clay +1 flask of water in a pottery wheel (trivial = 102)

Bowl sketches can be purchased from Bemli Takoth @ -50, 320, Eastern trader building

Small blocks of clay can be purchased Elisha Dirtyshoes @ 395, 945, Northern trader building

Destroy the unfired bowls. Don’t waste time and pp firing them.

2) Unfired large bowls to 148 skill

Combine 1 large bowl sketch + 1 large block of clay +1 glass shard + 1 flask of water in a pottery wheel (trivial = 148)

The large blocks of clay and the glass shards can be purchased from Elisha Dirtyshoes @ 395, 945, Northern trader building

3) Unfired casserole dishes to 199 skill

Combine 1 casserole dish sketch + 1 large block of clay + 1 flask of water + 1 ceramic lining in a pottery wheel (trivial = 199)

Casserole dish sketches are sold in Jaggedpine forest zone by Morgan Wetstone @ 1110, 2020 OR Karka @ -1125, 3270

Ceramic linings have to be made using pottery skill and fired before use. Ceramic lining sketches, small blocks of clay and quality firing sheets are all sold by Elisha Dirtyshoes @ 395, 945, Northern trader building.

Combine 1 ceramic lining sketch + 1 small block of clay + 1 flask of water in a pottery wheel (trivial = 36) then fire with a quality firing sheet in a kiln (trivial = 17) to complete the ceramic lining.

IX. Jewel Craft

Jewel craft 182 is the maximum needed for Coldain Shawl #8.

Jewel craft is similar to brewing in that EVERYTHING is storebought making it one of the easiest (if you have the money) of all tradeskills to GM.

Every combine is just one bar and one gem so combines will be listed very briefly

1) silver bar + jasper to 30 skill
2) silver bar + jade to 40 skill
3) silver bar + pearl to 42 skill
4) silver bar + topaz to 44 skill
5) electrum bar + lapis lazuli to 76 skill
6) electrum bar + hematite to 82 skill
7) electrum bar + bloodstone to 87 skill
8) electrum bar + jasper to 92 skill
9) electrum bar + star rose quartz to 98 skill
10) electrum bar + jade to 106 skill
11) electrum bar + pearl to 108 skill
12) electrum bar + topaz to 111 skill
13) gold bar + malachite to 146 skill
14) gold bar + hematite to 154 skill
15) gold bar + onyx to 162 skill
16) gold bar + star rose quartz to 170 skill
17) gold bar + jade to 178 skill
18) gold bar + pearl to 180 skill
19) gold bar + topaz to 183 skill
20) gold bar + peridot to 186 skill
21) gold bar + emerald to 188 skill
22) gold bar + opal to 191 skill

X. Baking

Baking is “needed “for Coldain Shawl #3 but can be completely BYPASSED by MQing i.e you need ZERO skill in baking if you can find a guildie to MQ it for you. If you decide to bake and do the quest for Shawl #3, then your max skill needed is 127.

To skillup baking I went to Mordins Meats in Thurgadin with a fileting knife and bought bear meat. Put one bear meat + fileting knife in oven and combine (trivials at 143).

Rinse and repeat. I didn’t bother trying other lower trivial combines as the meat is cheap and the combine is essentially a 1-item combine because the fileting knife ends up on your pointer so you can do it incredibly fast. You hit 143 in less than 2 hours on a dog-ass laggy comp.

By this time you have completed all the necessary tradeskills for all Coldain Shawls through #8. Good luck!

very nice guide. thanks Glimi!

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Frer - Human Healer Guy and stuff of Temerity

Great guide, Glimi. However, I have a few minor corrections/suggestions:



The bracelet drops from UP, not ME, off Dralkenr and Raldukan



I know this guide was mainly for rangers, you said, but I could not pass up the opportunity to suggest another great WIS item for other classes who might be reading this. Hope you don't mind

Slighted Gloves (+20 WIS) which drop from the thought stealer in ME is an EXCELLENT item for tradeskill gear, for beastlords and priest classes. Just wanted to throw that out there too. I've had a pair for a while and still use 'em



One could also go after the Polished Mithril Torque (+13 WIS, melees only) that drops in Nagafen's Lair off King Tranix. Might be somewhat of a tough camp, but arguably easier than Ssra basement. I've had this neck slot since my 30s, and I still use it for tradeskill gear.



One could also go for an Axgoreth's Belt of Defense, which drops from Xin Thall Centien in Maiden's Eye. Centien can be found at the UP<-->ME zoneline, as well as in the building leading to Akheava Ruins. +15 WIS, hybrids only, and much easier to get than a Burrower belt.

Also, the current Tradeskill Calculator at EQTC isn't very accurate these days, considering the vast number of changes that have occurred since PC side PoP, and now, seven or so expansions later.

Flubward, however, managed to get a copy of the old calculator, which Kyth is hosting. The "Al'Kabor Calculator" can be foundhere.

(Flubward's original post announcing the more accurate calculator)

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[65 + 120 Savage Lord] Gumgak (Ogre) <Temerity>
[58 Cleric] Gellic (Dwarf) <Temerity>
[47 Shaman] Chakarsis (Iksar) <Temerity>

For any guide to be useful it needs to be accurate so thank you for the corrections. Putting Gantru in ME instead of UP was rather silly typo, lol. Glimi actually uses a Polished Mithril Toque and used to use the 15 wisdom belt that drops in ME. I was just too lazy to add those things in. This was written quite a few months ago and I didn't do a very through job of updating it since then. Brellt uses the Slighted Gloves off the Thought Stealer--not bad gloves.

Not sure what the numbers for difficulty are for but Baking is much much more difficult than alchemy. Alchemy was all vendor bought and max 3 components. Baking was a backpack nightmare, and the farming wasn't difficult, just a bother. BUT - the subcombines involved in baking easily put baking above alchemy.

It's a great guide aside for that little nit pick. Great Job and Thanks!

Brewing 0 - 134 in an hour (My Intel was 255)

make Fetid Essence

Flask of Water + Fishing Grub = easy and fast



Sure you dont get all the needed supplies along the way-- but you get 134 faster than you can be called a fucktard

Demonica 52 Dark Elf Wizard of Sanctuary

The difficulty numbers correspond only to the probabliliity of getting a skill up given a specific combine, and say nothing about the overall difficulty of a tradeskill. True difficulty rating--which captures farming supplies, etc--of the big 7 would depend on class, but for a ranger, would probably be tailoring > smithing > fletching > baking = pottery > brewing > jewelcraft.

I would also add that getting smithing to 50 or so on whatever then switching to condesnced shadow combines makes more sense than this guide if you have the intention of GMing fletching. Acrylia is by far the limiting reagent for this combine. By comparison you are swimming in condensced shadow. Why waste time making javeilns etc when you need the products of other skills? I went from 20 to 114 on arrow smithing subcomines. Let your tradeskills leverage each other.

Also, dont spend skill points on tradeskills. Eary skillups come very, very fast, and cost next to nothing.

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Danidianya

Grand Master Fletcher (250) w/Trophy // Grand Master Jeweler (242+5%) // Grand Master Smith (227+15%)
Master Potter (224+5%) // Master Brewer (227+5%) // Master Baker (237+5%)
Master Tailor (224+5%) // Master Fisher (200)


Danidianya

Err. If they're working on their tradeskills to get this item, how would they be able to use it for WIS gear?

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Marauder Viva IceBear
Half-Elf Deceiver
Proud stabber of Temerity

The numbers are are relative comparison of how hard it is to get a successful combine and are for use with the EQCalculator and have nothing to do with how "hard" an individual finds a certain tradeskill.

Everyone knows that certain tradeskills require TONS of farming to GM them, but those numbers have zero to do with which tradeskill is "harder" to GM due to the farming required. It's an objective rating of how often your combine will succeed when you are below trivial level and attempting that combine. According to what I've read, all tradeskills are NOT equal ie if you have 190 skill attempting a 252 trivial tailoring combine you chance of success is NOT necessarity the same as someone with 190 skill attmepting a 252 trivial jewelry combine. The difference has to do with the "difficulty" setting of a given tradeskill compared to another tradeskill.

The number "2" tradeskills are supposed to correspond to the "Easy" checkbox on the EQ calculator and the "4" tradeskills are supposed to correspond to the "Hard" checkbox and of course the "3" skillsa are the "Medium" chekbox. The difficulty ratings were largely acquired by Macsbeth from web sources I have not seen. They may be correct, they may be wrong or they may only correspond to PC EQ. Sorry, that's the best I could do.

The EQTraders calculator has been changed to use the skill name, and abstract out the difficulty.

Unfortunately, they are using the PC numbers which have changed from our version.

For us, Tailoring and Smithing are "Hard" tradeskills to get skill ups, Pottery, Fletching and Baking are "Medium" and Brewing and Jewelcraft are "Easy". I think you might just have the numbers reversed.

On the PC side, they adjusted the difficulties of the tradeskills just after LoY was released to make getting skill ups in the "Hard" skills of Tailoring and Smithing easier, and made the "Easy" skills of JC and Brewing, harder. That might be why your (Macsbeth's) numbers differ from EQMac's implementation.

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Nikolai Lianfyrr,
Khati Sha Feral Lord.
GM Tailor (250), GM Smith (250), GM Brewer (250), GM Potter (250), GM Fisherman (200), GM Jeweler (250), Fletcher (220), Chef (200)

I don't think so Nik. Might have been random, but I got high-level tailor and blacksmithing skillups far faster than I did fletching or JC.

The "hard" "easy" designation is just skillup rate, not actual time invested in the TS.

I believe the skillup rates were only manipulated recently -- more recently than our TS calc.

(More coments from someone who has spent waaaaaay too much time on tradeskills:)



As has been said before. This is a BAD idea. You are better off spending those skill points elsewhere, particularly on the high end of combat and casting skills that you are having trouble maxing out. The first 21 points of pretty much any tradeskill come easily and cheaply. You will get a skill up on almost every combine attempt at 21 and below, and the combines are either cheap, vendor purchased items, or easy farmed items that you will need later on (metal bits, silk swatches, etc.).




I sense a great disturbance in the Force, as if hundreds of tradeskillers cringed in unison.

The conversion factors for Acrylia are notoriously inefficient. The best way to convert Acrylia into other sizes is to trade it with other tradeskillers who need the other sizes. Fletchers need small bricks. Tailors need small pieces. Smiths need large bricks and blocks. When you trade, you get much better return than the 3-1 that you would pay when you use the chisel/forge method.




Eep! Sheet metal is expensive (1.5p each) for the <75 combines. The cheaper alternative is to make things from metal bits (2 small pieces of ore 5s each + flask of water).

Metal bits are your friends.

Metal bits to 18 -- Save them for later steps
Files to 21 - (metal bit, flask of water, file mold) Keep 1 for later use.
Scaler to 41 -- (metal bit, flask of water, scaler mold)
Dairy Spoon to 74 -- (2 metal bits, flask of water, scaler mold)

Continue with armor after these...If you have a Bazaar Trader, put a few excess Banded, Ornate Chain and Fine Plate items up for sale. You'll get a little more than you would from selling them back to a vendor, and you'll make some newbie happy!



Making "essences is the cheapest way to up Brewing. Gimli mentions Fetid Essence. You can also skill all the way up to 187 on Shar Vahl essence, which is a Payala Fruit (common ground spawn in Shadeweavers' Thicket -- Blue mushroom looking things) plus a flask of water.



Be careful, getting drunk lowers your Int and Wis, so makes getting skill ups less likely. Save the drinking until AFTER you're done skilling.




The trick with Jewelcraft is to find the cheapest combination of gem and bar you can use to skill up. The rule of thumb I used when determining when to switch bars (silver, electrum, gold, platinum), was to use the gems in order of expense (Malachite, Lapis Lazuli, Hematite, Cat Eye, Bloodstone, Onyx, Jasper, Star Rose Quartz, Amber, Wolf's Eye Agate, Jade, Pearl, Topaz, peridot, Emerald, Opal, Fire Opal, Star Ruby, Fire Emerald, Sapphire, Ruby, Jacinth) until the gem is equal to or greater than the cost of the next level up in bar cost. At which point, you switch over to the next bar type and start over with the cheapest gem.

Overall, it takes a LOT of cash effort to master tradeskills, but some people think it's a nice diostraction from the other parts of the game.

Thanks Gimli for taking the time to make this guide. Do you think you'd be willing to add in changes to make it a more general guide for everyone?

_________________
Nikolai Lianfyrr,
Khati Sha Feral Lord.
GM Tailor (250), GM Smith (250), GM Brewer (250), GM Potter (250), GM Fisherman (200), GM Jeweler (250), Fletcher (220), Chef (200)

EQTraders' Thread on skill difficulties. Note: We have the "old" skill levels.

_________________
Nikolai Lianfyrr,
Khati Sha Feral Lord.
GM Tailor (250), GM Smith (250), GM Brewer (250), GM Potter (250), GM Fisherman (200), GM Jeweler (250), Fletcher (220), Chef (200)

Yes I've read that thread (or one like it). Don't have time to re-read the whole thing now, but that thread doesn't have Tailoring as the hardest. It was easy or medium if I'm remembering right.

I know some were off, I believe Fletching was hardest, and maybe... uhhh... baking was easier than it should be? Been a while :P.

EQTraders no longer has the original skill discussion thread, but the conclusion, back in 2002, was the skillup difficulties levels that I listed above. I noted them back then, because I was already planning my strategy for GM-ing all seven. After I got the quick and easy, GM on Brewing, I was going to GM the tradeskills in order of skill-up difficulty, from hardest to easiest. So, I have them listed as Smithing, Tailoring, Fletching, Pottery, Baking, Jewelcraft, Brewing.

In the intervening time, SOE has tweaked the skill-up difficulty on the PC side (search for posts by "AbsorEQ" and "Tanker", the SOE Tradeskill guys on EQTraders), but we have the original "untweaked" values.

_________________
Nikolai Lianfyrr,
Khati Sha Feral Lord.
GM Tailor (250), GM Smith (250), GM Brewer (250), GM Potter (250), GM Fisherman (200), GM Jeweler (250), Fletcher (220), Chef (200)