Blacksmithing

Apudark's guide
Thalium Barbs or Studs to 62

Fulginate Barbs or Studs to 112

Rhenium Barbs or Studs to 184

Cobalt Barbs or Studs to 222

Tantalum Barbs or Studs to 255

Tungsten Chain Bracer Template to 310

You'll probably run out of ore. Here is a nice chart showing what you can use after Tungsten. Vanadium and Osmium templates are still used by players for armor, so you can sell these templates in the bazaar.



Stillwaters' guide (may be outdated)
Thalium Plate Cloak Template to 100
 * Thalium Plate Cloak Template:
 * Brown Coal
 * Metal Tempering Chemicals
 * Plate Cloak Template Mold
 * Smithy Hammer
 * Thalium Ore x3

Notes: Brown Coal, MTCs, and the Plate Cloak Template Molds can all be bought from Halena Paerk of the western trade building of PoK. The Smithy Hammer comes from Kanio or Tallis Paerk, in the same room as Halena. Thalium Ore are found in low level ZONES or the bazaar.

Tantalum Studs to 255
 * Tantalum Studs:
 * Smithy Hammer
 * Tantalum Ore

Notes: As you can see this is a very complicated combine. Here's some places you can FIND Tantalum Ore.

Now were did you put that hammer?

Tungsten Chain Belt Template to 315
 * Tungsten Chain Belt Template:
 * Chainmail Belt Template Pattern
 * Lustrous Black Coal
 * Metal Tempering Chemicals
 * Smithy Hammer
 * Tungsten Ore x2

Notes: Chainmail Belt Template Patterns, Lustrous Black Coal, MTCs can all be bought from Halena Paerk. Look for Tungsten Ore HERE.

Thanks to Stillwaters, a/k/a arkadykappa, for this guide.

Zyxs' guide
First, go do the GoD ore refinement quest to get the ability to process GoD era ore drops. You won't need it for the higher level skillups in this guide, but you'll never know when you'll need it, and it's better to get the drudgery out of the way now when it's productive.

Then go do Beginner Smith Test

In the list below, there's a couple of racial items. Making the racial needles is not limited by your race. If you don't want to spend any time fishing or foraging, make some Fetid Essence and use that with the needles. The racial sewing kits are linked to your race and can only be made in your race's city in the racial forge.

The Envenomed pieces require components that are farmed from the Goru`kar mesa, but can frequently be found on their merchants. Succeeding on the steel gives you a shot at the cheaper blade combine, succeeding on the blade gives you a shot at the practically free athame combine.

Cost, Item, Trivial


 * .404, Dairy Spoon, 74
 * 1.091, Banded Gorget, 92
 * 2.073, Embroidering Needle, 122
 * fishing, Racial needles (from Embroidering Needle), 132
 * 6.571, Racial Sewing kit, 162
 * 18.173, Envenomed Steel, 190
 * 11.55, Envenomed Steel Blade, 190
 * .015, Envonomed Athame, 190

From this point, take a look at the cost of the ore drops in the bazaar.


 * Vanadium Ore Drop, Vanadium Barbs, 268
 * Palladium Ore Drop, Palladium Barbs, 282

I was able to get Vanadium and Palladium for 20pp a piece from the bazaar, with 11 stacks of Vanadium to get me from 190 to 268, and 5 stacks of palladium to get me to 282. (Level 68, 392 Int/322 str).


 * 49.872 + Tungsten Ore Drop, Tungsten Chain Bracer Template, 310 (95% success at 282 w/ 8% mod)
 * 65.622 + Cobalt Ore Drop, Cobalt Chain Bracer Template, 348 (95% success at 282 w/ 8% mod)
 * 99.747 + Titanium Ore Drop, Titanium Chain Bracer Template, 386 (83% success at 282 w/ 8% mod)
 * 131.598 + Tantalum Ore Drop, Tantalum Chain Bracer Template, 424 (68.75% success at 282 w/ 8% mod)

Knowing the full cost of the recipes, you should be able to look at the price of materials in the bazaar and find which of the 4 will give you the most cost effective final formula. You can also think of it like this: If the market is 100pp for tungsten, then 85pp for cobalt, 50pp for titanium, or 20 for tantalum is functionally the same for getting skillups. Based on the EQTraders calculator, trying the harder 2 recipes will have less than a 0.02% difference in skill up chance, which is small enough to be inconsequential. If you've got a 400 or higher prime stat, that difference goes away.