Gotcharms's tradeskill guide

The Tradeskill Guide for People Who Don't Like (Or Don't Have Time For) Tradeskills.

by Gotcharms - Firiona Vie server

While there are many ways to reach 300 in all 7 of the basic tradeskills needed for the Artisan's Prize, this guide will attempt to give you the most direct, pain-free route. It's the tradeskill guide for people who aren't fond of tradeskills.

To accomplish that, we're looking for tradeskill paths that involve minimal sub-combines while allowing for long stretches of “auto-combines” away from the keyboard. It's technically faster to do your skillups in smaller “chunks,” but the additional micro management required by constantly changing your combines every skillups can be a chore. Instead, we'll find combines that we can do for hundreds of skillups at a time – in most cases, each tradeskill will only require 2-3 combines from 0-300.

Note that this guide pays no attention to cost, though we do take into consideration extremely difficult to find materials. Anything too rare to be found on the bazaar won't be listed as a preferred skillup path. Cost will be affected by your server and the current state of material farming.

Before you begin
Before you begin make sure you have all the materials needed for the tradeskill you plan to work on next! The idea here is to minimize the amount of effort needed to reach 300 – in order to do that, taking a minute to organize (and empty!) your inventory before you start will be a huge help while you work your way to tradeskill mastery. Gather all the materials needed before you start, and remember that it can take up to a thousand combines to get from 250-300. Be sure to max your Salvage AA!

When attempting to create a high trivial combine, you can start to auto-combine the recipe as soon as it is “learned.” One successful combine will teach you the recipe. Remember that even when you have a skill of 0 you have a 1 in 20 chance of a successful combine. Most recipes will take around 10-20 attempts to “learn.” After that you can just auto-combine.

You can do the Crescent Reach quests to reach 50 in each skill if you so desire, though it's not required. You should take a moment to visit Freeport to get your Trophy quests for each tradeskill once you've reached 50 skill. While you may not think you'll do the trophies, at least grab the quests just in case. It's also recommended that you work on a Jewelcrafting trophy while doing that tradeskill; you don't have to max it (though you probably should).

Trophies and post 300
Be sure to first learn about Tradeskill trophies, especially the section Tatanka on leveling trophies.

If you will eventually want to get your tradeskills beyond 300, then you should check out our Over 300 section in the main Tradeskills article before you begin. The section Tatanka's advice is very helpful.

Recommended paths
Here are the example recommended paths for each tradeskill. Some of these tradeskill paths require some usage of the EQTraders “Quick Trivial” lists. You can also use the quick trivial lists to help identify a less expensive tradeskilling path – simply locate the readily available and cheap materials at your disposal, then work backwards on EQTraders.

Jewelcrafting

 * Jewelcrafting: Platinum Ruby Veils to 279 > Velium Blue Diamond Bracelets to 300 - Quick Trivial List

Jewelcrafting is likely the easiest and least expensive tradeskill to master. Everything can be bought from a vendor except the Blue Diamonds.

Note that you can also make Platinum Blue Diamond Tiaras to get to 295, but you'll still need to head to Thurgadin for some Velium to reach 300.

A handy jewelcrafting tip that works for any tradeskill: Go to Jeweler Nonny in POK and open a vendor window. Then click on the crafting bench right next to Jeweler Nonny. You can now sell your combines as you fill your inventory with Ruby Veils. Simply click on a bag full of the items you want to sell, then click sell in the vendor window. Everything in the bag will be sold! Make sure to only “sell” bags with completed combines – you don't want to accidentally sell all your crafting materials!

It's highly recommend you use Jewelcrafting to max a trophy. Even if you don't do any others, doing a Jewelcrafting trophy is quick and painless. It will also aid you in later high-risk fails in both the Artisan's Prize and the Crestra's Earring quests.

Tailoring

 * Tailoring: Hilt Wraps to 200+ > Silk/Leather Wristband Templates to 300 - Quick Trivial List

Hilt wraps are perfect for tailoring. Simply find a high level animal pelt and combine it with a pair of hickory handled shears (crafted by smithing). High level animal pelts start around Superb, which will get you to 222. Higher level pelts will decrease the number of Wristband Templates you need to make to reach 300. Immaculate pelts, for example, will get you to 268.

Once you're done with pelts, just find a high level silk and start making Templates. Note that you can also make Leather Wristband Templates instead of Silk, but it may be easier to buy two separate materials on your server, rather than try to find 2000 animal pelts.

Superb animal pelts/Silk will get you to 300, as will any pelt/silk of a higher level than that. Just use what's readily available in bulk from the bazaar.

We make the Wristband templates because they stack to 1000 and require the least amount of silk/pelts per combine.

Fletching

 * Fletching Class 6 Wood Hooked Arrow to 202 > Rough Shadewood Recurve Bow (Hemp) to 255 > Class 9 Steel Shardpoint Arrow to 300 - Quick Trivial List

Class 6 wood hooked arrows can be made from vendor-bought materials and have a high stack size. Note that you can (and probably should) do an intermediary combine between Wood Hooked arrows and the more costly Shardpoint Arrow combine.

Rough Shadewood Recurve Bow (Hemp) will get you to 255 and only requires vendor materials. They do not stack.

You have a couple options to hit 300, though the easiest is to make arrows. Fractured Shards and Tainted Feathers will need to be purchased in bulk. You can also try one of the higher level trivials from recent expansions – Conflagrant Lumber trivials will easily get you to 300 and only requires Conflagrant Wood. Manashot Crossbows require Relic Fragments. Terror Crossbows use Planar Energy Shards.

Use what is available, Fletching is usually barred by what's up for purchase in the bazaar.

Smithing

 * Smithing: Metals Barbs to 200+ > Wristband Templates to 300 - Quick Trivial List

Metal barbs are made using Ore + File in a forge. You'll need to make the file. The higher level the ore, the higher Barb trivial.

The absolute minimum we want to look for is Cobalt ore, as that will get us to over 300 skill from making Wristband Templates.

You can use any ore that is readily available, or even use different kinds of ore. The wristband combine itself should be the same for each ore above Cobalt, so feel free to mix and match. Try to get as much bulk as possible to cut down on recipe switching.

Brewing

 * Brewing: Soda Water to 58 > Champagne Magnum to 198 > Brut Champagne to 300 - Quick Trivial List

We have multiple leveling paths for brewing. This one breaks our sub-combine rule, but we do a bit of cheese to make things less painful. Soda water is needed for Brut Champagne, as is Champagne Magnum. We want to make at least 1500 of both. More is better. Once we've finished off the Champagne Magnums, we combine it all into Brut Champagne until we hit 300.

There are alternatives here. Check the quick trivial list if you don't want to sub-combine or don't have access to an Enchanter to enchant gold bars. There are many combines from recent expansions that utilize that expansion's “rare” mineral – Relic Fragments from TDS, for example, and require no sub-combines.

If you do go the Brut Champagne route, keep in mind that it will take at least a few hours to do the sub-combines your first time through (including Gold Bar enchant time).

Baking

 * Baking: Patty Melt to 191 > Dreamburger Paradise to 300 - Quick Trivial List

Patty melts are an easy vendor-bought combine that will take you to 191. You will need to secure yourself a Non-Stick Frying pan, which requires a bit of smithing and a trip to Jaggedpine Forest, but it's worth the jog. Patty melts are one of the few baking combines with no sub-combines.

To get to 300 you have a few options, though Dreamburger Paradise is likely the most attractive.

It requires a sub-combine to prepare the Dream Meat, but after that it's relatively painless. If you are vehemently against sub-combines (and you might be if you did brewing prior to baking) you can look for high level combines from recent expansions that use that expansions special ingredient. Relic Fragments can make Burning Salads and Enchanted Sugar Cakes, for example.

Utilize what's readily available and makes sense for you. Almost done!

Pottery

 * Pottery: Unfired Medium Bowl to 122 > Unfired Elaborate Hilt Casting Molds to 222 > Unfired Obsidian Scale Tonfas to 300 - Quick Trivial List

Medium bowls take us to 122 with just vendor-bought materials. We'll need Superb Silk to make the Unfired Elaborate Hilt Casting Molds. Note that we can use a variety of silk, including Exquisite and Flawless, to make our Hilt Casting Molds – use what is readily available.

Finally, to finish pottery, we make Unfired Obsidian Scale Tonfas. This requires Dream Dust, a sub-combine, and a Large Block of Magic Clay (Enchanter made), but is the easiest of the high level pottery combines.

We can also do high level combines with special ingredients from recent expansions if enough materials are available. Relic Fragments present an attractive alternative via Relic Fragment Figurines, though they will require 3 Relic Fragments each. There's also a particularly good Pottery combine that uses Air-Infused Spring Water and requires nosub-combines, but the spring water is pretty rare.

Research

 * Research: Runic Parchment Solution to 243 > Combat Tomes or Guidestones to 300 - Quick Trivial List

While it's not required for the Artisan's Prize, we do need it for Crestra's, so here's the path for research.

Note that it's recommended to do research last so we can take advantage of some Merchant Alliance quest cheese and make Combat Spellbooks to 300. If you don't want to do this, you can make Guidestones using Ethernere Essences to hit 300.

Any of the “XYZ Solution” combines will work to 243. They're easy to make with only vendor-bought materials.

Combat spellbooks can be made after you finish The New Tanaan Merchant Alliance questline and only require a writing ink from the bazaar.

Final comment
That's all there is to it. By following this guide you should be able to collect all the materials needed to reach 300, then take a weekend to casually auto-combine and AFK your way to 300 in all 7 (+1 for research) of the basic tradeskills. The main selling point of this method is that you can set your auto-combines and go do something else with your time, so be sure to take advantage of that.