There's something about Watersday...

Over the past few days, I've been spending my time up in Rabao desynthing Mythril Earrings and turning them into sheets, all in preparation for skilling up on Hydro Patas. I've noticed my desynth rate to actually be rather good, and I can hit the 14 Earrings -> 12 Ingots mark quite regularly, which is nice since as I've mentioned before, this saves me quite a lot of money. >_<


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.}

64! No wait, 65! ^^

There comes a point when patience breaks down, and you just go for it. For me, that day just so happened to be today. ^^

It actually started when I looked at the AH again and noticed that there wasn't a single Platinum Ingot listed on the AH. No singles, no stacks. The stage was set for someone to quickly release their Platinum Ingots on the AH, which were sure to sell before the day was done.

What happened next was rather odd. Platinum Ores had fallen down to as low as 35k/ea. down in Jeuno, while they were still 50k/ea over in Bastok. However, Jeuno did not have any Platinum Nuggets in stock.

Bastok, on the other hand, had plenty of Platinum Nuggets, but no cheap Ore. ^^

Put 2 and 2 together, and you have a plan. ^^ After some airshipping down to Bastok, I had enough Platinum Nuggets to last me quite a while. I then Warped back up to Jeuno, and started synthing in front of the Auction House since I couldn't hold enough Platinum Ores in my inventory after all those Nuggetarus. >_< Surprisingly enough though, that last level went by pretty quickly. It only took me about two and a half stacks of Platinum Ingots to get my level, with some left over to complete a stack of Platinum Ingots for sale.

And then there was the magical two lines which only constitute about 90% of this blog's screenshots. :D



Goldsmithing 64! I'm done with Platinum Ingots! /cheer

From here onto Goldsmithing 67, it's pretty fast leveling. Since there is no need to grow any more Nuggets to make Platinum Ingots, I can now use any gardening I do as extra income to help support my Goldsmithing from here on, with the added benefit of being able to Ingot up the Nuggets for more convenient sales. Thanks to Kojiz, the Bonecrafter who supplied me with a lot of Bone Patas, I had two mules full of Patas to quite literally powerlevel my way through to 67.

The recipe for Hydro Patas is as follows: A fire crystal, a Bone Patas, a Mythril Sheet, and a block of Animal Glue.

Note that I have alternate methods of obtaining 2/3rds of the required ingredients. :D Mythril Sheets currently go for just above 110k per stack. However, with roughly two stacks of Lightning Crystals and a stack of Fire Crystals and some 14 Mythril Rings bought from good 'ol Scampblix in Rabao, I can make myself a stack of Mythril Sheets for about 60k, saving myself 50k in the process.

With Alchemy 60, I am into the 51+ tier on HQ'ing Animal Glue. A stack of Animal Glue sells for 17-20k on the AH. However, with four stacks of Bone Chips (12k), two stacks of Rabbit Hides (2.5k from NPC) and two stacks of Fire Crystals (7k), I can HQ to give me about three stacks of Animal Glue, saving myself another 40k or so on the Animal Glue.

It makes the leveling process...less painful, to say the least. ^^

Anyway, I tried synthing a few up with little success, and just one skillup, so waited until later to try again, this time recording the results. >_<

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 64.1
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: Firesday, Waning Gibbous (86%)

64.1
02:35 Success.
02:47 Success, +0.1!
64.2
03:00 Success, +0.1!

64.3
03:14 Success.
05:42 Success, +0.1!

I was very happy at this point. After all, +0.3 skillups in five synths? {Yes, please}! Unfortunately, that was not to last. >_<

64.4
05:56 Failed- lost a Mythril Sheet.
06:08 Success.
06:22 Success.
08:46 Success.
08:59 Success.
09:12 Success.
09:25 Success.
09:37 Success.
09:50 Success.
10:04 Success, +0.1!

64.5
10:16 Success.

Hit a string of ten synths without a single skillup.../sigh. At this point, I had run out of Mythril Sheets, so I had to go make some more before attempting to skillup again. Some hours later...

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 64.5
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: Lightningday, Last Quarter Moon (55%)

64.5
16:44 Success, +0.1!

64.6
17:05 Success, +0.1!

64.7
17:19 Success, +0.1!
During these last few synths, I was in a party with my friend, Seraphpdh after watching him get Cooking 100 (btw, {Congratulations!} ^^) After getting 3/3 skillups, we were joking that he brings me good luck and good skillups. Can't say I disagree with him...^^

64.8
17:34 Success.
17:49 Success.
18:03 Success.
18:16 Success, +0.1!

64.9
18:32 Failed- lost the Bone Patas, Animal Glue, and Mythril Sheet. +0.1!

Critical failure. >_< But oh well, I got Goldsmithing 65! :D Strangely enough, I don't have a screenshot of this. Not too sure why either, I must've forgotten or something like that. -_-

65.0
18:58 Success.
19:17 Success.

Ah well. ^^ It took a total of 33 synths to get one level (including the seven I tried to get that first +0.1), so overall, it's pretty much on par with the one 1:3 skillup ratio in the post-50 world.

The Hydro Patas are NPC'ed for 2,550 gil in Upper Jeuno, or if I feel particularly miserly, 2,601 gil elsewhere. It's only a 50 gil difference, although when you think about it, I'll probably be making about a hundred of these, but even then, what's 5000 gil? >_<

I'm curious just how much I'm losing a synth though. Doing the calculations:

Fire Crystal (12): 4000 gil
Bone Patas (1): 3,500 gil (x12 = 42,000 gil)
Animal Glue (12): 20,000 gil
Mythril Sheet (12): 110,000 gil
=====================================
Total cost (12): 176,000 gil (= 14,667 gil/synth)

So with an NPC resale of 2,550 gil, I lose 12,117 gil a synth, which isn't too bad I suppose. When you factor in the fact that I obtained my Animal Glue and Mythril Sheets through alternate means, I actually halve that loss, down to about 6,600 gil/synth, which is a much nicer figure. ^^

Now to wait for the maintenance to be over and done with so I can get back to making more Mythril Sheets to get up to 67, although I don't know if I have enough Bone Patas to last me that long. >_<

Goldsmithing 63!

I've been synthing rather randomly nowadays, mostly due to an urge to try and skillup due to a lack of gardening (which will hopefully change soon!) and a desire to hit 63.

As it turns out, all those Hosodachis I made have not gone to waste- I made a Hosodachi that gave me a +0.1 skillup to Goldsmithing, putting me at 62.9. Sure, I lost half the ingredients, but the ingredients were fairly cheap, and besides, I don't care as long as I skilled up. ^^

Unfortunately, leaving me at 62.9 was rather mean. One day later, out of an itch to try and synth (again, I know :P), I decided to craft up two Platinum Ingots. The first one didn't give me a skillup, but the second...^^



DING!! Goldsmithing 63! ^^

I have one last level of Platinum to go, and I'm wondering if I should just buy my Platinum Nuggets from the AH and try running with those instead. I won't be able to start growing for another week, and after that, I still ahve another two weeks before the plants reach maturation. That's three weeks of inactivity, during which my Bonecrater is churning out more Bone Patas for me to use. >_< I think in all practicality, it'd be better for me to just skillup off ingredients bought from the AH, and hope I eventually complete that level.

Speaking of Bone Patas, I have a _lot_ of them waiting in three mules. It's probably enough to take me a level and a half, too...all I need to do now is craft up enough Mythril Sheets to go with the tons of Animal Glue I've already made, and then it's time to push to 67! ^^

Must...skillup...

Well, the Hosodachis faded out real quick. >_<

As it turned out, several other people found out about the Hosodachis, or people are just returning theirs, and as a result, there are now plenty of Hosodachis up on sale, with each person undercutting the others to drive the price down. I really didn't want to get into a price war, but seeing as how the last Hosodachi sold for 45k (as opposed to 60k in the last entry), I guess I have no choice. ; ;

Anyway, I decided to craft two more stacks of Platinum Ingots today, which is something I normally don't do, at least, not with materials bought from the Auction House.

Because of my real life plans, I have been unable to garden simply because I was not able to check my plants daily, and so, instead of risking it, I decided to wait it out until I reach a period where I can start my next harvest with peace of mind. Unfortuantely, that day is twelve days from today. Yes, I could theoretically plant and harvest in time, but that's cuttings things real close, and personally, I rather not take the chance.

However, Faeyth (one of my friends) was starting his venture into gardening Platinum Nuggets, and after a successful harvest of nearly five stacks of Nuggets (he only had ten pots), I decided to buy them off him and craft them up. Besides, I was also itching to get some skilling done, so went ahead and bought up some more materials at the AH. >_<

In addition to the Platinum Ores I had stashed on my mule, I bought a grand total of eight more Platinum Ores for 292,500 gil, and eight stacks of Platinum Nuggets for 621,000 gil. In addition to that, I bought all of Faeyth's Nuggets, 56 in total, for 336,000 gil. That, and the requisite Fire Crystals for 3k/stk in Jeuno (wootaru!), I invested a total of 1,255,500 gil, not counting the Platinum Ores I already had on my mule.

The skillup was split into two sessions, one of Lightsday, the other on Darksday,

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 62.4
Skillup synth: Platinum Ingot (cap 64)
Imagery Support: None
Equipment of note: Pluto's Staff
Direction: North
Location: Mog House
Moghancement: Powerful Fire
Moon phase: Lightsday, Waxing Crescent (24%)

62.4
03:32 Success.
03:44 Success.
03:56 Success.
04:10 Success.
05:45 Success, +0.1!

62.5
05:59 Failed- lost 1 Platinum Ore, 5 Platinum Nuggets, +0.1!

62.6
06:24 Success.
06:44 Success.
07:06 Success.
07:19 Success.
07:31 Success.
08:55 Success.

I found it a little unusual to get just +0.2 in twelve synths, considering past skillup sessions net me +0.4. At the time, I thought Lightsday had something to do with that, and so decided to try out Lightsday's opposite.

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 62.6
Skillup synth: Platinum Ingot (cap 64)
Imagery Support: None
Equipment of note: Pluto's Staff
Direction: North
Location: Mog House
Moghancement: Powerful Fire
Moon phase: Darksday, Waxing Crescent (26%)

62.6
10:47 Success.
11:00 Success.
13:06 Success.
13:42 Success, +0.1!

62.7
13:58 Success.
14:19 Success.
14:40 Success.
15:02 Failed- lost 1 Platinum Ore, 4 Platinum Nuggets.
15:25 Success.
15:37 Success, +0.1!

62.8
17:15 Failed- lost 2 Platinum Nuggets.
17:28 Success.
18:37 Success.
18:49 Success.

Surprisingly, I did not skillup any better on Darksday than Lightsday, although the increased fail rate is more evident. Granted, these are very small samples, and I suppose my rather disappointing skillup rate over the two stacks would mostly be attributed to bad luck. I can't help but think about trying to compare these synths to another skillup session on a Waxing Crescent.

Anyway, in total, I used 25 Platinum Ores, 149 Nuggets, and 26 Fire Crystals to get 23 Platinum Ingots out. I took a spare Platinum Ingot I had lying around my Storage to complete the second stack. Cost wise, Platinum Ores were a high of 39k/ea, while the Nuggets were 78k/stk. Fire Crystals in Jeuno were at a surprisingly low, at 3k/stk. Overall, the costs add up as:

Fire Crystal (12): 4000 gil (x2.167)
Platinum Ore (1): 39,000 gil (x25)
Platinum Nugget (12): 78,000 gil (x12.147)
=====================================
Total cost: 1,931,134 gil

I ended up making 23 Ingots, which sell for 1 million a stack, so that's roughly 1,916,667 gil out for a loss of 14,167 gil. Since I sold these Ingots, I had to incur an additional cost of about 21k for AH taxes. >_<

Still, 35k for 0.4 skill points is pretty good for this stage.

I'm getting to work stockpiling Bone Patas up and getting the various ingredients together. It's a good thing I can HQ Animal Glue, since those are currently going at 20k/stk at the Jeuno AH, while the materials for a dozen synths cost me roughly 10k, and I can HQ Animal Glue at the 51-tier as well! All in all, I'll save myself roughly 130k just by making my own Animal Glue. ^^

Getting together some ten stacks of Mythil Sheets, on the other hand, will take quite some time in Rabao. >_<

Hosodachis!

Nappycat found me a little gem of a synthesis a few days ago. As the name implies, that synth is a Hosodachi, a Greak Katana with a synthesis cap of Goldsmithing 64. The Hosodachi is one of the better Great Katanas available to a SAM37, and currently sells for about 60k on the AH.

The materials to make the Hosodachi cost approximately 27k. ^^

So not only is this quite a profitable synth (32k profit? {Yes, please}), I can even skillup on it en route to 64!

However, the recipe has some subcrafts which are probably responsible for its profit margin. Other than Goldsmithing 64, the required subcrafts are Alchemy 51 and Leathercraft 40. Now, most Goldsmithers have their Alchemy to 60 in preparation for making Cursed gear, however, not many Goldsmithers have their Leathercraft up.

And so, when Nappycat told me of the synth, I set about powerleveling my Leathercraft to the point where making Hosodachis was practical. It wasn't particularly difficult, mostly because I already had Leathercraft 20 to start, and I had plenty of Dark Crystals left over from growing Platinum Nuggets, not to mention that I only needed to make Parchment (which I can send to Nappycat to make Piccolos +1 and split the profits), and Ram Leather, which is profitable in itself.

At Leathercraft 32, Nappycat started bugging me to sign a Hosodachi for him, despite my concerns that my Leathercraft was not high enough. He assured me though, that one could not fail by using an HQ crystal, although that claim was quickly put to rest when I broke two of them trying to make a Hosodachi. >_<

After a few more levels of Ram Leather though, I had reached Leathercraft 35, and could now feasibly synthesise a Hosodachi with advanced Leathercraft imagery. I ended up making five Hosodachis in total, failing once more in between. Four were sold to the Auction House, and the last, I signed and gave to Nappycat. All in all, the four sold Hosodachis gave me a nice 128k profit. Unfortunately, I didn't get any Goldsmithing skillups- only +0.3 Leathercraft. >_<

Unfortunately, it seems that other people have started to catch onto things. I was trying to keep things on the low-down on the Hosodachis, for fear of people flooding the market, although that hope seems short-lived. Last I checked, there were five Hosodachis up on sale, and goodness knows if they will sell quickly, or if people will start undercutting the price down.

In other news, I decided to sell two stacks of Platinum Ingots in preparation for the Hydro Patas stage, and have already started stockpiling up Bone Patas at roughly 4-5k each. Unfortunately, I forgot to keep track of how many Patas I bought, so I don't think I can keep track of a running total. Besides, the last two runs of Platinum Ingots have shown me that the prices can vary wildly, even within levels, and so, it's really not practical to try and keep a running total as an account of how expensive, or costly Goldsmithing is.

My purchases did not go unnoticed. ^^

I've recently been contacted by an aspiring Bonecrafter, who has offered to sell me the Bone Patas that me crafts up for just 3.5k each. Not only does that settle my supply of Bone Patas, it also saves me an estimated 180k when skilling the Hydro Patas stage, or Goldsmithing 64-67! Not bad of a find, I must say! ^^

Soon, when I return home, I will be able to start up another round of gardening, and maybe create a fifth mule in order to accomodate a full sixty pots, or exactly five stacks of Tree Cuttings. At least that will make the purchases easier. The resulting Nuggets should give me about +1.5 skill levels, or put me at Goldsmithing 63.9 or so, from which I can easily churn out the last 0.1 from materials bought from the AH. Then, gardening will turn to means to sustaining my Goldsmithing. Hopefully, all goes well from there. ^^

It's also starting to alarm me just how fast certain people can level up this craft. Over on the Killing Ifrit forums, there is an aspiring Goldsmither by the name of Navia, who has been taking an active role, participating and sharing her experiences Goldsmithing with the forums.

However, I couldn't help but notice that Navia is now Goldsmithing 75.3, but only started roughly three months ago! Compare that to myself, who has been working on Goldsmithing for the past year, and I can't help but feel a little bit envious, although to be fair, Navia's been working a lot harder at Goldsmithing than I. I wonder what level I would be at right now, had I been as diligent as she?

Back on the skilling treadmill...

Yesterday, my plants finally reached maturity. I harvested all 40 pots on Iceday, Waxing Crescent (29%), and got a pretty decent harvest in the end: 26 chunks of Rock Salt, 69 Dark Crystals, and 196 Platinum Nuggets, or just over 16 full stacks of the stuff.

I've also been stockpiling a few more Platinum Ores, and actually overshot. >_< I only need thirty-two Platinum Ores to support all the Nuggets, but when I went over to my mule to count, I had at least fifty-one stocked up. >_< Anyway, my last "in between" purchase was another thirteen Platinum Ores for 502,823 gil.

A quick breakdown tells me that the Tree Cuttings cost exactly 500,000 gil, while the Platinum Nuggets, at their current price of 80,000 gil a stack, bring in 1,306,667 gil, or 806,667 gil profit. Not as large as my last harvest, but the price of Tree Cuttings have since risen (while the price of Platinum Nuggets fell ; ;).

Armed with Nuggets and Ores, it was time to synth!

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 61.4
Skillup synth: Platinum Ingot (cap 64)
Imagery Support: None
Equipment of note: Shaded Spectacles, Vulcan's Staff
Direction: North
Location: Mog House
Moghancement: Powerful Fire
Moon phase: Windsday, First Quarter Moon (45%)

61.4
9:00 Success.
9:13 Success.
9:40 Failed- lost 1 Platinum Ore, 2 Platinum Nuggets.
9:52 Success.
10:07 Success.
10:22 Success, +0.1!

61.5

10:41 Success.
10:55 Success, +0.1!

61.6
12:46 Success.
13:04 Failed- lost 1 Platinum Nugget.
13:19 Success, +0.1!

61.7
13:33 Success.

13:56 Success.
16:33 Success, +0.1!

61.8
16:47 Success.
17:03 Success.
17:17 Success.
17:31 Success.
17:54 Success.
18:07 Success.
18:20 Success, +0.1!

61.9

18:35 Success, +0.1!

Which brings me to...



YAY! /cheer /joy ^^

To keep the level gap constant, I took off my Shaded Spectacles at this point.

62.0
21:20 Success, +0.1!

62.1
21:33 Failed- lost 1 Platinum Ore, 4 Platinum Nuggets.
23:03 Success.
23:19 Success.
23:33 Success.
23:50 Success.

It now changed to Iceday, First Quarter Moon (48%).

00:26 Success.
00:58 Success.
01:13 Success.
01:26 Success, +0.1!

62.2
01:39 Failed- lost 1 Platinum Nugget.
01:52 Success, +0.1!

62.3
04:42 Success.
04:57 Success, +0.1!

And there you have it. A full 36 synths later, I got +1.0 skill gains. Quite good, if you were to ask me. ^^

Calculating costs, I used up 200 Platinum Nuggets, 34 Platinum Ores, and 36 Fire Crystals. Current prices are:

Fire Crystal (12): 4000 gil
Platinum Ore (1): 40,000 gil
Platinum Nugget (12): 80,000 gil
=====================================
Total cost: 2,705,333 gil

I made 32 Platinum Ingots, or at current prices of 1 million gil per stack, I got back 2,666,667 gil. Which means I actually lost money on that skillup session! Guess those breaks really did make a difference after all! >_<

Still, 38,666 gil for +1.0? Yeah, I'd take that. ^^I am however, fast approaching a problem. It seems that there are multiple Goldsmithers at my level now, and not enough demand for full stacks of Platinum Ingots. In face, even singles don't move that quickly, and there are already plenty up on the AH. The problem is that I now have just over seven million gil locked up in Platinum Ingot form, and I need to somehow sell them, so I can buy more Tree Cutings to grow the next batch of Nuggets! Hopefully all will turn out well in the end...hopefully. >_<

Maybe I ought to try and strike up a private deal with some of the higher-level Goldsmithers?

Summary:
Today's accounts: -502,823 gil
Amount invested from 60.0: 6,283,063 gil.
Overall cost of 60.0~61.0: +54,044 gil.
Overall cost from 61.0~62.0: +32,667 gil.
Overall cost from 62.0~: -38,000 gil.

Stockpiling.

My plants are growing fine, and with a little luck, I should be feeding their first crystal tonight. In the meantime, I've been leveling up my other crafts, and have also been stockpiling Platinum Ores in anticipation of this upcoming harvest. Bought eleven Platinum Ores today, at 43k each, except for one which I managed to get at 42k. ^^

I think my mule has at least thirty Platinum Ores on her now, so I'm not sure if I should continue to stockpile. I'm also debating if I should sell some of my Ingots, since I will need the money, but Nynaeve told me of a new way to skillup Goldsmithing that does not involve Platinum, so is a very welcome change. Unfortunately, I can't really mention it right now, since it's pretty much her secret, but I'll write about it once Nynaeve and I are done. ^^

Summary:
Today's accounts: -472,000 gil
Amount invested from 60.0: 5,780,240 gil.
Overall cost of 60.0~61.0: +54,044 gil.
Overall cost from 61.0~: +33,333 gil.

Ready to continue.

Wow. Between fixing my computer, and a two-week long holiday to Japan, add in another weekend visit to family, and that is one heck of a long time I have not updated this blog!

Fortunately, it seems that now, at least I'll be able to log on consistently at least once a day to check in on any plants for the next two weeks, and with that in mind, I set about to start my second round of gardening.

The break really did put the brakes on the skilling though. In the time I've been away, I should be almost done with my fifth harvest by now, although as it stands, I'm about the start my second. Shame, really- I'd probably be closing the 60s, and probably have my apron by now. Ah well, C'est la vie?

Platinum has taken somewhat of a dip, falling to 40k-45k each, which did not bode well for the multiples of Platinum Ores I had stored on my mule. >_< More alarming, there are an increasing number of stacks of Platinum Ingots up on the AH for sale, and given the trends, it looks like they are coming from people who are also skilling up on Platinum Ingots like I.

While I personally do not plan to sell my Platinum Ingots to the AH, I realise that this is something I am going to have to do anyway. From my last skillup session, it seems that from 61.4 to 64.0 (when they cap), I will need to make another nine stacks of Platinum Ingots, or have another 9 million stored up on my mule. Unfortunately, my current balance is just over three million gil, so at some point, something will have to give way, and I imagine that I will have to release some stacks in order to continue.

Of course, that all depends on how rich my harvests are. I suppose if they are large enough, I can afford to sell a stack to recuperate the losses, and then keep the extra Ingots as profit. That ought to work, I guess.

Anyway, I managed to swipe off six Tree Cuttings (singles) off the AH at 8k each. Stacks are now going for 130k per stack, which I ended up buying three of, and I had a few leftover Cuttings from the last gardening session. In total, I spent 438k on Tree Cuttings today. I also picked up a single Platinum Ore for the low, low price of 36k, although unfortuantely, no more were selling at that price. >_<

It has also come to my attention that I did not record when I planted my last batch of plants, nor keep track of when I fed them, etc. So in lieu of that, I'll make a note of that now, just in case it turns out to be fruitful later in the future.

Gardening Session #2:
Planted: Lightningday, Waning Gibbous (93%)

There we go. Now to wait another twelve days before harvesting, and hopefully, I'll be into Level 62 at the end of it all! ^^

Summary:
Today's accounts: -474,000 gil
Amount invested from 60.0: 5,308,240 gil.
Overall cost of 60.0~61.0: +54,044 gil.
Overall cost from 61.0~: +33,333 gil.