If you want an idea of how much it saved me, my next skillup run consisted of 91 synths, so we'll say 90 Mythril Sheets. At 4140 gil per earring, it takes me roughly 14 Earrings and two stacks of Lightning Crystals and a stack of Fire Crystals to make a stack of Mythril Sheets, or about 68,000 gil for a stack of Mythril Sheets. Sheets sell on the AH for at least 110k, so that's a saving of 3,500 gil a Sheet. Multiply that by 91, and you have total "savings" of 318,500 gil! I've already detailed out how I also make my own Animal Glue, so as one might imagine, my financial input into these synths was cut down quite nicely. ^^
Anyway, supposedly, Watersday is good for skilling up on Fire-based synths, and so, I decided to turn 36 Bone Patas into Hydro Patas. Unfortunately, what resulted was an exercise in frustration.
Starting Goldsmithing skill: 65.0
Skillup synth: Hydro Patas (cap 67)
Imagery Support: None
Equipment of note: Pluto's Staff
Direction: North
Location: Mog House
Moghancement: Powerful Fire
Moon phase: Watersday, Waning Crescent (24%)
65.0
04:30 Success.
04:43 Success.
04:55
Success.
05:12 Success.
05:25 Success.
05:39 Success, +0.1!
65.1
05:52 Success.
08:17 Success.
08:31 Failed- lost a Mythril Sheet.
08:44 Failed- lost a Mythril Sheet, block of Animal Glue. +0.1!
65.2
08:58 Success.
09:11 Success.
09:23 Success.
09:35 Success.
09:48 Success.
10:05 Success.
10:17 Success.
13:30 Success, +0.1!
Already, one can tell that something is wrong. Even assuming the normal skillup rate of one skillup ever three or four synths, these 17 synths should have at least gotten me an additional +0.1 instead of the rather stingy +0.3 I received. Unfortuately, the worst was yet to come.
65.3
13:42 Failed- lost a Mythril Sheet, block of Animal Glue.
13:55 Success.
14:07 Success.
14:19 Success.
14:31 Success.
14:44 Failed- lost a block of Animal Glue.
14:57 Success.
15:11 Failed- lost a block of Animal Glue.
15:23 Success.
15:35 Success.
18:17 Failed- lost the Bone Patas.
18:29 Failed.
18:42 Success.
18:54 Success.
19:07 Success.
19:19 Success.
19:32 Success, +0.1!
65.4
19:46 Success.
19:59 Success, +0.1!
Count it. That's seventeen consecutive synths there without a single skillup. I was literally tearing my hair out at this point in frustration. Normally, if I sense the day was bad, I would quit trying to skillup altogether for the day, but I decided to tough this one out because I wanted to find out if Watersday really was all that cracked out to be. So far, I have yet to be convinced.
I synthed 36 times, which normally is enough to nearly get me a full level, but instead I got just half. Oh well, I went back to the normal scheme of things the following Darksday:
Starting Goldsmithing skill: 65.5
Skillup synth: Hydro Patas (cap 67)
Imagery Support: None
Equipment of note: Pluto's Staff
Direction: North
Location: Mog House
Moghancement: Powerful Fire
Moon phase: Darksday, Waxing Crescent (7%)
65.5
04:44 Success.
04:57 Success, +0.1!
65.6
05:10 Success, +0.1!
65.7
05:23 Success, +0.1!
65.8
05:48 Success.
06:00 Success.
06:16 Success, +0.1!
65.9
06:46 Failed- lost a block of Animal Glue.
07:09 Success.
08:23 Success, +0.1!
*drum roll*
Goldsmithing 66! /cheer! ^^
66.0
08:41 Success.
08:54 Success, +0.1!
66.1
09:08 Success.
09:22 Success.
09:36 Failed- lost the Bone Patas, +0.1!
66.2
09:49 Success.
10:01 Failed- lost a Mythril Sheet, Bone Patas.
11:33 Success, +0.1!
66.3
14:36 Success.
14:49 Success.
15:02 Success.
16:25 Success.
16:50 Success.
17:13 Success.
17:28 Success, +0.1!
66.4
17:41 Success.
17:56 Success.
18:13 Success.
18:25 Success.
18:49 Success.
19:02 Failed.
19:15 Success, +0.1!
At this point, I had run out of Mythril Sheets, and so had to trot back to Rabao to make some more. >_< That particular run started off very well though, and I was quite happy with it at the end of that skilling session. Even made one more Patas at the Upper Jeuno AH for fun and got a skillup out of that, too. ^^
Anyway, the next Darksday, I started up again.
Starting Goldsmithing skill: 66.6
Skillup synth: Hydro Patas (cap 67)
Imagery Support: None
Equipment of note: Pluto's Staff
Direction: North
Location: Mog House
Moghancement: Powerful Fire
Moon phase: Darksday, Waxing Crescent (26%)
66.6
03:49 Success.
04:02 Success.
04:17 Success.
04:30 Success.
04:43 Success.
04:55 Success, +0.1!
66.7
05:08 Success.
06:40 Success, +0.1!
66.8
06:53 Success, +0.1!
66.9
07:18 Success.
07:33 Success.
09:19 Success.
09:32 Success.
09:46 Success.
10:00 Failed- lost the Bone Patas, +0.1!
TA-DAH! I'm finished with Hydro Patas! :D
Now, just one level separates me from my apron. Unfortunately, it's one heckuva level. Platinum Earrings, otherwise known as a 17k hit to the walletaru with each success, and that's not counting the breaks. I already tried synthing five Platinum Earrings, breaking tow in the process and getting a skillup. In total, that one skillup point cost me about 250k, so it hurt quite a lot. >_<
I'm wondering how to best approach this. On the one hand, I can farm up Moblumin Ingots in Oldton Movalpolos and synth those into sheets (they are cap 69). The advantages are that it does not cost me money, and the Moblumin Sheets are later used to make a Shrimp Lantern which caps at Goldsmithing 72, so I'll have part of that settled as well.
Unfortuantely, what it does not cost me in money, it costs me in time. >_< While Nynaeve has been getting pretty good luck in getting Moblumin Ingots, in all the times I've been down to the Oldton Movalpolos, I've gotten a grand total of ZERO drops. Nadda. All the time I spent down theretrying to farm them could've otherwise been spent desynthing for profit in Rabao. An hour in Rabao pays for about five synths, as opposed to an hour in Oldton Movalpolos, which supplies me with one synth, if even that. In the end, it's just a matter of simple opportunity cost. >_<
68 is very important to me. Not only do I get my Apron, but at Goldsmithing 68, with my Shades, and my Apron, with Advanced Imagery (+3), I synth as a 73 Goldsmither, which just squeaks me into the 51-HQ tier for Silver Earrings. Now, not only can I get relatively cheap Silver Ingots thru desynthesis, but at the 51-tier, HQ'ing say, 1/3rd of them give me very nice profit by itself. And then I can just break down the NQ Earrings to try and reroll for the HQ. Each HQ nets me about 20k profit, and I should be abe to HQ them nearly half the time. How's that for profit? ^^
Still, the push to 68 is harsh. I'm looking at the other five stacks of Platinum Ingots I have stashed up, and they're looking mighty tempting, I have to admit. >_< One thing's for sure though. I don't think I'll try skilling up on Watersday again. No, not after what happened, at least, not for a while.
Darksday {Yes, please.}
