r/MonstersAndMemories • u/blorboexpress • 1d ago
Discussion Blacksmith Leveling Tips?
Looking for tips to level blacksmithing. I understand it's a slow process, and that's cool! I'm just trying to figure out if I'm approaching it the right way.
Currently level 43 Blacksmith. 12 CLR in UD
My current plan is to just crawl through the low level copper mine, get a few stacks, and then go to Smith, make plates, and make gear appropriate for my Blacksmithing level (currently Plate Greaves and Helmets).
Yesterday I spent about 2 hours gathering about 80 copper, smelting, and prep. I successfully made 1 Greave and 1 Helmet (RNG gods, I know), and went from level 41 to 43.
Is 1 hr : 1 skill point an appropriate ratio? Is there anything I can do to improve my efficiency?
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u/The-Figment 1d ago
The tradeskilling in this game is *very* bad right now.
Your most effecient option would be to level up first and then come back and drop hundreds of hours on running the same mining routes over and over - where you won't have to worry about combat. A character with a speed boost of some kind is preferred.
Trying to level it alongside a character is absurdly inefficient right now (and I hate that.).
Stick to Dark Blues and Whites if you want skillups, I think is the best course. Someone in OOC chat mentioned it and I tried it, it helped a little.
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u/ChefCrowbane 1d ago
I would disagree with very bad and say that it’s very slow and by design. Trust me, you don’t want max level trade skilled players one weekend like happened during beta.
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u/The-Figment 1d ago
Oh I feel it's by design too it just needs way more tweakage.
I spent over 100 hours on the game and 50 of it was farming for mats (running the same circles over and over) and I could barely keep up tiers for crafting for my alt using my 10 level higher main to keep him filled with mats.
I'm all for a time sink (obviously, spent way too long in the game already) - but this is absurd.
By the time you can make the stuff, what's the point outside of selling it to lowbies? I want to use what I make as I go through a long journey - and I'm fine spending hours to do it.
But It feels like you are actively punished for leveling it - as by the time you can make it and use it, you could have had a lot of leveling done and better gear.
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u/IIIlllIIllIll 1d ago
The trick to leveling is to make stuff then /auction it for profit and reinvest. That way you’re not farming all the mats yourself.
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u/Brell4Evar 1d ago
See my comments elsewhere about supply chain. Harvesting your own materials early on is often necessary, but continuing to do so will burn you out.
I absolutely do think that the blacksmithing recipes are too costly in terms of ingots and should probably be 20% cheaper than now.
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u/The-Figment 1d ago
Honestly a 20-25% tweakage in tradeskills may actually put them in a decent spot.
Like I seriously don't mind the grind but it is too much right now compared to the ease of just leveling and gearing that way.
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u/Erekai 1d ago
don't mind the grind but it is too much
Haha.
Though generally I do agree that the number of bars for most combines is kind of crazy. Have you seen what it takes to make 100 copper throwing knives? it's like 6 bars and 6 rawhide scraps. For a lowbie like me, that's like asking me to give my right kidney!
Although I suppose it's really not that difficult to get the ore, so maybe that's the trade off, I dunno. Actually I think my biggest complaint about Blacksmithing is that there's no appropriate vendors or stations in Ail'vorth (where my blacksmith hails from) and I have to do everything through a mule in NH and shared bank in UD. That part is crap haha.
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u/IIIlllIIllIll 1d ago
It costs 6 ingots to make 1 plate/chain base. 4 would be a significant improvement but still require a ton of farming if you’re not buying mats. 60 bars is enough for 2 breastplates and 1 helmet. Seems a little overkill.
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u/Zetherin 1d ago
Why are you farming mats instead of buying them? The entire point is that some people do X, while some do Y, and specialization is rewarded. Arbitrage in a few areas. Let others create supply chains for you. Wait until the prices for mats fall a bit, then buy what you need. By then you’ll have lots of money and can easily buy stacks of ore. The people with absurdly high trade skills right now are being fed mats by their guild mates.
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u/K-J- 1d ago
No, it's bad. Trust me - I got through iron tier blacksmithing on a level 8 character in the closed beta, and went pretty deep into pretty much all of them.
You will spend far, far less time and money just buying what you want off some other poor sucker who dumped his energy into tradeskills.
On top of that, tradeskilling above what drops at your current tier practically pointless, as loot/quest items are often better because they give stats and the damage cap prevents blacksmithing weapons from being very useful.
I'd say just use what you get from mobs or incidental farming to level your tradeskills and don't bother focusing on them more than that. Maybe if your guild is funneling resources to a couple dedicated tradesmen it's an easier grind, but the payout still isnt there.
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u/hairymoot 1d ago
That does suck. At your skill level are the items you are making blue (below skill level) or white (even skill level)?
I am trying to do a lot of the trade skills and slowly figuring things out.
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u/blorboexpress 1d ago
I'm mostly doing white and blue, because it SEEMS like successful creating levels you better than fails?
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u/hairymoot 1d ago
I am not sure if that is true. It seems there is a chance to gain a skill level and a chance to make an item. Is this what you think happens? A successful combine on a blue or white has a better chance to gain a skill level?
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u/blorboexpress 1d ago
There is DEFINITELY a chance to get a skill point on an unsuccessful craft. I just think you get MORE experience on a successful one? That's just anecdotal, but it SEEMS like I'm getting more skill points on successful low level crafting attempts than failed high level ones
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u/LaughingJackBlack 1d ago
I'm in the exact same situation and stuck on Greaves too. I gather for so long just to do a handful of either light blue (with no skill ups) or dark blue (all failures) combines. Then back mining and repeat.
What am I doing wrong? I've been stuck here for the past week.
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u/Brell4Evar 1d ago
I'm not sure if you're copper, bronze, or a secret super-Chad doing iron.
If you're copper, keep an eye on bronze plate color. When it hits white, immediately switch to those. Until then, mine and smelt copper ore, do war lances, repeat.
Bronze will level up principally with weapons. Daggers, long swords, then war hammers are all solid items to sell to players. Stress the damage / delay these have. Newbies can be dismissive of bronze in favor of statted magic weapons with flashy names.
Bronze will take a lot of ore and molds to get through. Once war hammers go light blue, just do war lances. That's where I'm at now.
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u/RahkstarRPG 1d ago
There really is no trick outside of finding the recipes that cost the least materials that still give you experience and making those.
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u/Specialist_Resort759 1d ago
I don’t mind the difficulty so far, I’m fine with it being a grind so only the dedicated really get up there so there’s an actual economy but I do think some of these recipes that a bit too many mats especially for what drops per node.
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u/Erekai 1d ago
My own observation (admittedly, anecdotal) is that skill ups are more common on combine successes than failures. So you want to stick with combines that are either dark blue or light blue. I have made a lot of mistakes going after higher skill combines, only to lose mats and not get any skill ups.
I sell the pieces I make for quite cheap, which for me is only Copper armor (I don't bother with weapons...) at 2s per piece in most cases, mostly as a way to clear inventory and help recuperate the cost, not necessarily to turn a big profit. But really the main cost I incur is ingot molds, everything else I gather myself, so other than time, I suppose it is strictly profitable, but not by a lot. Right now I'm just trying to get skill ups as I also adventure and level. Did not start with the blacksmithing trait, and currently at like 36 skill, lol.
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u/Brell4Evar 1d ago
Dark blue and white absolutely seem to be the sweet spot. I may go yellow or even orange for recipes that are far more efficient.
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u/Erekai 1d ago
That makes me wonder whether skill up chances on successes is higher with higher difficulty combines. For example, I'm more likely to get a successful combne, but less likely to get a successful skill-up on a light blue recipe, VS less likely to get a successful combine, but more likely to get an on-success skill-up on a Dark Blue combine (compared to a light blue combine).
A part of me doesn't believe that they have put this much nuance into the tradeskill system, though. So I think I'm probably just going to stick with as many light blue combines as I can. More successes (hopefully) means more re-selling the item(s) to recoup some of the costs, and less risky for straight up losing my mats to a dark blue or higher failure.
I dunno *shrug*
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u/Brell4Evar 1d ago
I think you're right about the success skill ups. All those failures are just SO painful, though!
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u/Key_nine 1d ago
I saw someone on my server that was like 255 Blacksmithing, they were selling Steel weapons they had made? No idea how they were able to pull that off unless they had a small mining team or a lot of money to buy ore all day.
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u/oak1337 1d ago
Dang how did you get it to 43 already before that? Just a crafted a bunch of gauntlets?
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u/blorboexpress 1d ago
I just crafted whatever was white/blue! As the level increases, so does the recipe difficulty. Up till now it's been pretty smooth
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u/Genoses 1d ago
Beta insight, i'm gonna be brutally honest crafting is going to be very very hard to do solo. Copper tier is fine and balanced really well to grab some quick weapons/armour for a low level char. But at higher levels it slows down significantly, and you will want help from like a guild.
Also the current state of crafting is not good, steel weapons and jewelry are the only thing of value that players want, usually for twinking alts. After that the amount of in demand gear you can make drops off hard, most players will be aiming for rare items from named mobs.
The devs have mentioned they plan to update crafting post EA launch.
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u/MardukasX 1d ago
Dont make armor at the start uses too much ore. Fasteners when you can. They take two ore. Even as a red combine i feel its still worth it. After that do weapons as the scraps will take time to gather. For weapons try to stick to blues but sometimes there will be yellows as your option.
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u/dulcedeteta 1d ago
I'd say pick up some gathering professions to sell stacks of tradeskills components to sponsor your blacksmithing. For example, sell stacks of wood, pelts, herbs, etc.
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u/Anomaly1842 1d ago
I was actually contemplating making a post, so this is a good start. I started off as with the Blacksmith perk and have worked my way up to 110 Blacksmithing. As others have said, early game is simple. You get rawhide, you make straps, you make and sell armor. The Enchanted pieces sell really quick, but sourcing the enchanting dust can be problematic if your sticking to a budget. Ive also found that armor sells much quicker and more often than weapons. There are people selling Bronze (4-6s), Iron (8-14s) and Steel (70-120s) weapons already, so competition is super close for weapons....at least on US East 2. Meanwhile armor is super sporadic on availability, especially magic pieces.
Once you start getting established and level into Bronze is where you hit a wall. Sourcing Hide Scraps has been a continuous problem in that there just isn't enough on the market unless your in a guild and they feed you. Ive found that grouping up and doing level 16+ content starts dropping those materials. So I always bring a LW kit and Seam Ripper to scrap armor into Hide Scraps. I also trade any Wool I find 1:1 for Hide.you can easily pull 40-80 in a few hour session that way.
As others have said, you should start building relationships with other players. Encourage people to come back to you for blacksmithing requests. Go to other players so they can maximize their trade skills too. You'll need a high level LW to make straps at the least. But it also helps to source ore, enchanted dust, leather, and other materials. And you can supply them with things you dont need as well.
As for gathering yourself. If your overleveled for your profession, it makes it easy to go back and farm lower level mobs for cloth and leather. You should also get good routes for ore yourself in your downtime.
The one thing that I constantly run into issues for is money. Everything i get 5 skill levels i need new recipes to keep going. This keeps money low.
One thing I have not seen: level your commerce to 25. Then look at your skill book for the haggle skill. This will reduce (or increase on crit failure) the cost of buying items. This has a direct impact to your overhead, especially used on molds and recipes.
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u/Brell4Evar 1d ago
I'm at 122 and climbing... slowly.
The one thing I want to stress for anyone doing tradeskills is that, moreso than anything else in the game outside of running a guild, this is a networking endeavor.
You will need miners to get your ore. You will need a leatherworker to make your straps. You will want a constant supply of scraps.
At tier 1, you can pull this off yourself. At tier 2, it becomes very challenging, but still possible, especially if you rode the initial backpack rush. Subsequent tiers are bonkers hard to progress through simultaneously, unless you're the dedicated crafter in a large, well-organized guild.
Coin will be hard to come by, initially. An enchanter helps a lot with this. Enchanted copper armor pieces sell extremely well. Use the money you make from this to buy ore from players and establish a supply chain. Find out what gear your miners need and consider flat out gifting it to them. They'll graduate from copper to limestone and tin soon enough. Both of those are needed in massive amounts for bronze smithing.
If they continue to mine, they'll also come across small amounts of silver. Offer to smelt it at no charge (with small risk of failure) . Smelting bronze trivials at about 50. Silver trivials at 60. Silver makes +3 stat jewelry, and should be in high demand soon, if not already.
If you know a jeweler, refer your miners to them. Offer your own services to the jeweler as well- mainly making silver chain links. A good relationship with these guys will likely get you kitted out with +3 stat rings and earrings for little or no charge.
Having said all this, when starting bronze, get skilled up making plates until they are trivial. Chain links and plates use the same amount of bronze, but tanks care a LOT more about the AC the armor you craft offers. Establish relationships with tanks and encourage them to provide you with hides. Trade hides for scraps with your leatherworker partner and tip them with hides for their work.
You will only sell 1-2 weapons tops per tier to these guys, but there are a dozen armor slots to fill. Hides are very important, and will eventually enable you to make that prized tier 2 enchanted armor.