Worth raising Blacksmithing/Tailoring for a newbie?
 

I'm out farming pelts and silk in EC at the moment, and have been sharpening rusty weapons to get my blacksmith up (at 16) now. I plan on getting my smith/tailoring as high as I can without making an investment (I.E farming the mats myself).

How long would it take me, unfunded, to get into the 100s from scratch, and is it worth my time to be doing this right now? I really wanna be high enough to make a full suit of Wu's Fighting Armor before WC, as I'll need the upgrade by then.

Are you having fun doing it? Then yes. Personally I would rather poke hot needles under my toenails.

I completely agree that you should be really high to do this though.

Am I having fun doing it? Zig, I'm having fun doing anything and everything in Everquest. So that would be a yes.

But I'm leveling up at the same time, since spiders are blue to me, so wouldn't it be in my best interests to do both if they dovetail with eachother?

If you like it then yeah, heck yeah! I think EQ tradeskills are horrific though! Plus I think you level much faster than you get the materials for the skills.

Maybe so, but I have zero money and need a way to make it. I need to acquire Wu's Fighting Armor at an early level.

I could get there if there's enough Spiderlings to feast on in EC.

You need 2 silks to make a silk swatch. Let's say you get a skillup every 5 combines. You need to be ~120 or so to make a full set of Wu's. (you will have many failures on the very high stuff). I seriously doubt you will be able to farm 60 stacks of spider silks while you are still "at an early level." Keep in mind that Wu's combines require Vials of Viscous mana that have reagent costs that are ~5p, plus the enchanter aggravation.

You are better off farming bears and cats and selling the HQ pelts in the tunnel. It will be cheaper in the long run.

You'll almost certainly spend more on HQ pelts, mana vials, and other materials to get your tailoring into the 120s than you'd have spent just buying a full set of Wu's in the first place.

But, you said you want to farm all the materials yourself. Okay, let's look at the math: it'll take around 5 combines to get a skill-up (probably more if you have low WIS/INT, which you will as a Monk). You start on reinforced armor around level 60 and it doesn't trivial until 108. How long will it take you to farm ~250 HQ pelts? Then you can start on attempting Wu's, which is even more expensive to make.

My advice: farm whatever sells well, save up for a set of Wu's. Make your own cured silk in the meantime if you want; that will serve you just fine until you can save the 450pp or so.

And don't forget to buy weapons. :)

1) Farm "Spider Silk" and "High Quality Bear Skins" save your ruined pelts.
2) Sell HQ Bear Skins in Tunnel for ~20pp and buy more stacks of Spider Silk for 5-8pp each.
3) Make Silk Swatches until 15 - save them
4) Use ruined pelts to make patchwork armor until 26
5) Make cured silk masks until ~60 or so (higher if you have silks)
6) Farm/Buy HQ Bear Skins and make Handmade Backpacks - profit of 30pp or more for each one you sell

Not sure what the demand is for bags now but I was selling 20+ bags in an hour or so of tunnel time a day about a year ago.

7) Buy Wu's - you won't make back your investment on the skillups needed to warrant the advancement if that's all you are after

It's not worth raising smithing/tailoring unless you specifically find it fun and want to make gear for OTHER PLAYERS (not yourself). If you just want gear for yourself and/or money, the best way to go is to farm and sell. Bone chips sell for 5-10pp a stack and there are decaying skeletons en masse in North Ro. HQ bear pelts sell for 10-20pp each. Spiderling silk sells for 20-40pp a stack; the best place to farm it is in a certain underground crypt in Field of Bone at level ~5 or higher. Spider silk sells for 5-10pp a stack; the best place to farm it is in East Karana at level ~20 or higher. Spend a bunch of time farming up this stuff and you'll buy your set of Wu's much faster and easier than if you tried to make it yourself.

Alternatively, just level up normally and you'll make enough money selling research components to merchants (runes, pages, words) and/or dungeon loot to players to buy equipment by your 20s or 30s.

tailoring/smithing are not worth it at this point in the game, for any reason.