Tradeskilling made a lil easier (1 Viewer)

I HATED tradeskills until I figured out a few things. Some ppl use bots to do their level grinding n such but I prefer to do things the hard way at times and after 70 levels of the hard way I figured a few things out:
This is the biggie: You get THREE reaction buttons every 10 levels...USE THEM! I found out that just by countering an event, you're wasting your time AND your power. Using Alchemy as an example because that's whut I do: My 3 event counter icons are as follows: A yellow flask, a question mark, and a book. I put them on my hot bar in that order partly because of my Rain Man Syndrome :p and partly because I have found thru experience that the flask and the book happen much more often than the question mark. Now the reason for this is because when I counter an event while making something, I use all all three buttons. The order varies and I am not going to go into it much here because it's easier to just experiment with them and see what works best for you but always counter the event that pops up then very quickly follow with the other 2 buttons. An example from alchemy: Endothermic reaction if yellow flask. I hit yellow flask then book and finally question mark. Now depending on which set of buttons I am using either advance progress or advance durability, it gives me a huge boost over if I was to just hit my yellow flask button. If I just used the yellow flask for durability, I might advance that 5-7, if I use all 3 durability arts together, it's more like 35-50. ALWAYS do you reactions in 3's. I have various scattered tradeskill alts and this is always the case regardless of the trade class. Now once I learned this lil tidbit, and the one below, I never failed to make a pristine item ever and this is like 35-40 levels straight.
Ok This lil hint may make more sense than the one above, which takes practice and trial n error to figure out. Every 10 levels you get a new set of 3 reaction arts and they alternate: One 10th level you get 3 that advance progress and the next 10th you get 3 that advance durability. Make sure you have one set of each on your tradeskill hot bar at the same time. The set from your previous 10th level 10,20,30, etc. May be greyed out meaning they're of little use to you but that's not true. It just means yer 10 levels higher than when you first got em. Kinda like combat spells n CA's but they're still extremely useful. Now, my Rain Man Syndrome kicking in again, I have my progress "buffs" in slots 1,2,3 and my durability in slots 0,-,=. This keeps em separated enough that I can put a set of fingers on each. If my green bar (durability) is full or darn near full, Every time a reaction pops up, I use the progress buttons (123 remember?) to get my lil blue bar (progress) moving along as much as I can. When my durability drops below 50% I counter reactions with those buttons (0-=). A lil earlier than 50% for first time pristines. Every 10 levels I lookit the descriptions of my new reaction arts and switch out for whichever the description says it advances. This way I always have my latest set up and also have the set up from the 10th level before. I can zoom thru first time pristines in no time flat although you do get the occasional PITA combine where it drains yer power to get it but that can happen even making greyed out combines for friends n guildies too. Certain days the trade gods just hate yer darn guts! :mad:
If you're grinding for experience, always go thru your new set of recipes for that level and make all of your first time pristines first. If you have any trade vitality left after using #1 and #2 above, this will give you 4 times the experience you normally get from making the item: double xp for the vitality bonus and double xp for making the pristine item the first time. When you go thru your new recipes and do this first off, you can get a LOT of xp fast. Now go back and make the items that take the fewest ingredients and this will usually top off yer level pretty nicely. The reason I say fewest ingredients instead of most xp, (I get more xp from making poisons n potions than I do for making CA's) is because if I am just grinding, I do NOT want to spend a lot of money on broker for supplies nor do I want to spend hour after hours just harvesting. This way I get more miles per gallon from what I have on hand and have to harvest less.
From lvl 60 to 70 YOU NEED ROOTS! Alchemist and provisioners need the same root nodes from KoS zones (Thanks for that one SOE, thanks alot :mad: ) This makes for a ton of competition for the same harvests up there. Not to mention the damn farmers that take said roots and sell them for insanely high prices (or try to) to those of us who run out at a critical moment (like 5% from levelling). My suggestion, if you have a toon high enough, is that once you hit level 50 in your selected trade, start saving hanging roots like they're gold! Beg, borrow, steal the damn things because everyone needs them it seems. Just please be considerate of your fellow harvesters and share the nodes. There is nothing I hate more than to be mid harvest and some assling comes along and starts harvesting the same node I am. With the new trade system in place, it took me 150+ roots to gain a tradeskill level. So yeah I get pissy when someone is snaggin' from me when the darn things come in harvests of 3 at a time. But I am also considerate of my fellow skillers and do not try to harvest the same ones they are on. It's just common courtesy. Not to mention the fact that the alchemist or provisioner yer pissing off might be the only one online when you need that critical adept 3 CA or stack of high end food/drink for your next raid. We DO remember the A$$holes, trust me. Now, if you don't need these roots, someone does. Sell em, just please at a reasonable price for the love of GOD! NOBODY wants to pay 29s+ for one darn root when you need so many at a time. Use your head, it didn't cost you squat to get em, sell them for a reasonable price and you WILL make money, which in turn will offset youre fuel costs for tradeskilling. From lvl 60 on, it costs me 34g+ for 100 candles to use as fuel.

Okay,​

That's it for me. If any of the above fails to make one inkling of sense, feel free to send me a tell if you see Niskin online. I'll do what I can to clear the haze a bit and get ya going towards level 70 in yer selected field. Oh, and all of the above works for all trades as far as I know. It's not a cheat or an exploit or anything of the sort, it just makes it a lil easier for those of us who prefer to do things the hard way at times. Happy grinding!

Thanks! I've been using the three icons the same way as you describe, and it does help boost things up. I sort of drum my fingers across the keys when the event pops up. I'm trying to see if tradeskilling eats my sanity or not -- if I had any before I started.

I actually didn't start to enjoy it til after lvl 50 when I got the sweet poison recipes. I have a ranger friend so would load him up with a few of each and the ones that kicked the most tail, I made a mess of em and sold. Great if you just have an hour or so to kill or don't feel like killlin' stuff. Of course, when I got closer to 70, I spent hours n days in there just so I could hit it. There's money to be made in trades and as long as I have enough ingredients for a good run of stuff to sell I enjoy hearing the cha-ching sound every time I make a stack of something that's gonna give a scout instant agro thus instant death. :p Seriously tho, if you're in a group with friends, it doesn't cost a thing to harvest during downtimes so the only real expense you have is your fuel. Turns out a good profit. Oh, one other thing, Careful how fast you "drum" if you hit the other 2 too close together time wise, one cancels the other and you only get 2 going off instead of 3. So it's kinda like: *counter reaction* *next button* *split second pause* *then last button* Hope it helps.

I actually take this a bit further. Once you get used to the tradeskill system you quickly realise that a new event can only happen on a tic. This means if you know when the tic is (it's in rhytm with the tradeskill sounds), you can tell if there was no negative event, and then fire your two best mana free tradeskill abilities.

I usually use the two + durability skills every time this happens, until I hit max durability, then I switch to + progress. By doing this you can make just about anything pristine.

I have never once failed to make a top pristine item if I really concentrate and time my abilities to the tic's perfectly.

very nice post!

Racecar said:

I actually take this a bit further. Once you get used to the tradeskill system you quickly realise that a new event can only happen on a tic. This means if you know when the tic is (it's in rhytm with the tradeskill sounds), you can tell if there was no negative event, and then fire your two best mana free tradeskill abilities.

I usually use the two + durability skills every time this happens, until I hit max durability, then I switch to + progress. By doing this you can make just about anything pristine.

I have never once failed to make a top pristine item if I really concentrate and time my abilities to the tic's perfectly.

Click to expand...

Yeah the tics are something I don't have the luxury of...on dial up I am lucky to keep up with events with my lag. Much less try to time the tics too. I DO know what ya mean tho if you can time your trade spells to be in effect when a tic goes off it makes a nice lil jump.

very nice niskin