Shiny Things

2009-08-24T08:42:00.001-07:00

\[D=k\left (1+\frac{M}{100} \right)[B+\lambda(I_Y-I_M)]\]

\[D=\left [\frac{k(B- \lambda I_M)}{100} \right ]M+\frac{\lambda kMI_Y}{100} +k \lambda I_Y+k(B- \lambda I_M) \]

\[\frac{dD}{dM}=\frac{k(B- \lambda I_M)}{100}+\frac{\lambda kI_Y}{100} \]

\[\frac{dD}{dM}=\frac{k[B+ \lambda (I_Y-I_M)]}{100} \]

\[\frac{dD}{dI_Y}=\frac{\lambda kM}{100}+\lambda k\]

\[\frac{dD}{dI_Y}=\frac{\lambda k(M+100)}{100}\]

\[\frac{dI_Y}{dI_M}=\frac{\triangle I_Y}{\triangle M} \]

\[\triangle I_Y=\frac{dI_Y}{dM} \]

\[\frac{dI_Y}{dM}=\frac{dI_Y}{dD}\frac{dD}{dM} \]

\[\frac{dI_Y}{dM}=\frac{100}{\lambda k(M+100)}\frac{k[B+\lambda (I_Y-I_M)]}{100}=\triangle I_Y \]

\[\triangle I_Y=\frac{\frac{B}{\lambda}+I_Y-I_M}{M+100} \]

\[\triangle I_Y=\frac{\frac{B}{\lambda}+I_Y-I_M}{M+100}=\frac{\frac{541}{2}+125-89}{71+100}=1.792 \]

\[\frac{1.02}{1.01}=1.00990=0.99% \]

\[\frac{1.51}{1.5}=1.00666=0.67% \]

Money, where art thou?

2007-01-08T01:50:00.000-08:00

As detailed over at a recent post on the Bloggaru, I've found myself to be in a rather tight spot in terms of money. Thanks to me picking up RNG (of all jobs) on impulse, I quickly burned through a lot of my cash supply, and even with Celestria paying me a commission for each elemental bead carved up for her, I found myself with just 200k to my name.

Not exactly the best way to go for a Goldsmither, eh?

And so I sat down and scoured the lists for something to make. At Goldsmithing 86, that plus my Shades, Apron and Advanced Imagery brings me up to a virtual skill of 91. Hitting the 51-tier means targetting anything with a skill cap of 40 and below.

A few days ago, another fellow Goldsmithing, Nynaeve, mentioned that she was making nice money off synthesizing the Silver Ring +1 recipies. With that in mind, I quickly checked the AH, and set about to try and make me some Courage Rings +1.

Three stacks of Silver Ingots set me back another 90k. I picked up some Sardonyxes from the Lower Jeuno jewelry shop, and from the AH, averaging around 1.5k each, and of course picked up the requisite crystals, too.

I managed to turn three stacks of Silver Ingots into nine Silver Rings +1. The next step would be to turn all those into Courage Rings +1, the end result being that I got 4 Courage Rings +1 out of the whole deal. All in all, it took me a little over an hour to assemble, and with Courage Rings +1 selling for 50k on the AH, I make myself about 100k profit.

Not quite the numbers I was looking to put out, but for a 51-tier synth, I wasn't really expecting too much.

Nearing the end...

2007-01-08T01:41:00.000-08:00

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 85.1
Skillup synth: Elemental Beads (various- cap 87)
Imagery Support: Advanced Imagery
Equipment of note: Auster's Staff, Goldsmithing Apron, Shaded Spectacles
Direction: South-East
Location: Bastok Goldsmithing Guild
Moghancement: Powerful Wind
Moon phase: Lightsday, Full Moon (100%)

85.1(+5)
9:38 Success, +0.1!

85.2(+5)
9:51 Success, +0.1!

85.3(+5)
10:04 Success.
10:17 Success.
10:31 Success, +0.1!

85.4(+5)
10:47 Success, +0.1!

85.5(+5)
11:00 Success, +0.1!

85.6(+5)
11:36 Success, +0.1!

85.7(+5)
11:49 Success.
12:01 Success.
12:13 Success.
12:25 Success.
12:38 Success, +0.1!

85.8(+5)
12:50 Success, +0.1!

85.9(+5)
13:08 Success.
13:37 Success.
13:51 Success.
14:04 Success.
14:18 Success.
14:31 Success, +0.1!

One last level of Elemental Beads to go. ^^

86.0
14:45 Success.
14:59 Success.
15:23 Success, +0.1!

86.1
15:35 Success.

I can see why they say Elemental Beads give good skillup. Actually, it seems to be the case that, although I occasionally got subpar skillup rates, a lot of my skilling sessions have at least averaged a +0.3 gain per twelve synths, but the number of these "streak" skillups off Beads is really quite remarkable, considering that I'm technically synthing over cap.

Anyway, Celestria and I met up again a few days later to continue:

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 86.1
Skillup synth: Elemental Beads (various- cap 87)
Imagery Support: Advanced Imagery
Equipment of note: Auster's Staff, Goldsmithing Apron, Shaded Spectacles
Direction: South-East
Location: Al Zahbi Goldsmithing Guild
Moghancement: Powerful Wind
Moon phase: Darksday, Waxing Gibbous (74%)

86.1
1:30 Success.
1:42 Success.
1:54 Success.
2:06 Success.
2:17 Success, +0.1!

86.2
2:31 Success.
3:00 Success.
3:12 Success, +0.1!

86.3
3:25 Success.
3:38 Success.
3:52 Success, +0.1!

86.4
4:05 Success.

At this rate, two more skillup sessions should bring me to cap. Then, goodness knows what...

Catching up...

2006-12-30T20:06:00.000-08:00

It's certainly been a long time since I last updated this. There are certain things I had done that have not been recorded, including reaching Goldsmithing 84 in the meantime off one of Celestria's batches of beads.

I also went a little bit adventurous and skilled up on Diamond Shields! :D

Granted, the cap is higher than Elemental Beads (Beads cap at 87, while the shield caps at 90). Prices have changed drastically since then, but at the time, the materials cost 900k to put together.

900k for a skillup synth is a lot, I know, but if memory serves me correctly, in relative terms, 900k was just the price of two elemental ores. However, the price of Diamond Shields were a whopping 2m, on an NQ! Each successful synth, regardless of whether I actually skillup up or not, net me around 900k, which is certainly a very welcome break from the mass gil {/toss} of the 70s!

In any case, I reached GS84, although the problem was that I had lost my notes, so other than looking up my Craft Skills under my profile, I didn't actually know how close I was to 85.

Fortunately, Celestria was here to save the day. ^^ Of course, from my records, I now know that I took my four-month break from FFXI with my Goldsmithing at 84.4, but just keep in mind that I didn't actually know this when I came back. ^^

One thing to note is that before I left, I must've cleared out my Mog House a little. Taking out several Wicker Boxes, I had downgraded my overwhelming Wind energy down to powerful wind energy.

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 84.4
Skillup synth: Elemental Beads (various- cap 87)
Imagery Support: Advanced Imagery
Equipment of note: Auster's Staff, Goldsmithing Apron, Shaded Spectacles
Direction: South-East
Location: Bastok Goldsmithing Guild
Moghancement: Powerful Wind
Moon phase: Earthsday, Waxing Gibbous (88%)

84.4(+5)
17:31 Success.
17:44 Success, +0.1!

84.5(+5)
17:57 Success.
18:10 Failed- lost the (Wind) Ore.
18:25 Success, +0.1!

84.6(+5)
18:38 Success.
18:51 Success.
19:05 Success.
19:32 Success.
19:43 Success.
20:04 Failed- lost the (Dark) Ore, +0.1!

84.7(+5)
20:19 Success, +0.1!

A couple days later, we continued with a second batch of twelve beads:

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 84.8
Skillup synth: Elemental Beads (various- cap 87)
Imagery Support: Advanced Imagery
Equipment of note: Auster's Staff, Goldsmithing Apron, Shaded Spectacles
Direction: South-East
Location: Al Zahbi Goldsmithing Guild
Moghancement: Powerful Wind
Moon phase: Lightsday, First Quarter Moon (52%)

84.8(+5)
18:22 Success
18:35 Success, +0.1!

84.9(+5)
18:49 Success.
19:01 Success, +0.1!

GS85! Now I know what skill level I'm at for sure! >_<

85.0(+5)
19:28 Success.
19:42 Success.
19:55 Success.
20:07 Success.
20:31 Success.
20:45 Success.
20:58 Success.
21:11 Success, +0.1!

So I end here knowing that I am at 85.1. ^^

Eighty-Three

2006-06-10T05:56:00.000-07:00

Celestria came by with another dozen beads for me to carve, and so...

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 82.7
Skillup synth: Elemental Beads (various- cap 87)
Imagery Support: Advanced Imagery
Equipment of note: Auster's Staff, Goldsmithing Apron, Shaded Spectacles
Direction: South-East
Location: Bastok Goldsmithing Guild
Moghancement: Overwhelming Wind
Moon phase: Lightningsday, Waning Crescent (14%)

82.7(+5)
2:56 Success, +0.1!

82.8(+5)
3:06 Success.
3:25 Success, +0.1!

82.9(+5)
3:38 Success, +0.1!

83.0(+5)
4:14 Success, +0.1!

83.1(+5)
4:27 Success.
4:40 Success, +0.1!

83.2(+5)
4:56 Success, +0.1!

83.3(+5)
5:34 Success.
5:47 Success.
5:59 Success.

I have to admit, Beads so far have been really good skillup. This makes, what, a full 1:2 skillup rate over the last three runs? That's incredible for the post-60 crafting world. o.O

I am starting to get worried about not having enough GPto get my Fool's Gold by the time I git Goldsmithing 88. That, and I'm going to have to start raising money to get me GS87→88 soon.

When in need of cash...

2006-06-04T18:09:00.000-07:00

After throwing ludicrous amounts of gil at a linkshell attempt at the dreaded Airship battle for CoP, I found myself in the uncomfortable position of not having much gil on me. Now, understand that people's perceptions of "rich" and "poor" are all different, and I know several of my linkshellmates may get ludicrous when I say this, but after finally purchasing my Igqira Lappa, and throwing some 800k worth of items and medicines at Omega/Ultima Weapon before eventually losing (/fume), I was approaching 1m, and that's when I start to /panic about being "poor".

The problem is, I've never really been all that good at making money. I don't actively go out and ensure that my AH slots are full and what-not, nor do I scour the recipe list for items. Most of what I do for profit has been chanced upon usually by accident, as in the case with Energy Earrings +1, however, sales have been slow, and it's gotten to hte point where people are so desperate to sell their Energy Earrings +1, that three sales on the AH history has gone for 40k and less, which is rather impressive for an item whose AH history otherwise indicates a price between 120-140k.

But anyway, I needed money.

Browsing through the Allakhazam forums for inspiration, I chanced upon this post from Gourry, which in essence, demeaned all those higher-level crafters who expect to have profit recipies rained upon them. In particular, the part where he goes,

After doing an hour, not even a day, just 60 minutes of research i sat down with 2800k capital, and i have 1200k left in gil, and 6 million gil in items that'll take me ~a week to sell off.

I have to admit, I am pretty lazy when it comes to finding profit synths, mostly because I haven't really found a real, driving need for money, making me rather complacent about things. In addition, my own cautious, pessimistic nature also means that all the profit synthing I've been doing thus far have been "safe" synths, tynths that I am in the 51-tier for, such as Animal Glue, or more recently, Energy Earrings +1. Before that, I never really used my Goldsmithing for profit, at least, not to my recollection, other than desytnhing Mythril Earrings in Rabao. Yes, that was fun.

/sarcasm off

So anyway, I had two routes. I could either go with 51-tier synths, like Energy Earrings +1, however, I felt that the profit margin on those were too small to really be "worth my time" (told you I'm lazy XD), so while I did dig up some Sardonyxes that were collecting dust on my mule and turned them into a pair of Courage Rings, I was looking for something with a little more "oomph" in them.

That meant looking to the 31-tier. For me, at GS82, with a potential +5 from gear and imagery, that opened up every synth no higher than a cap of 56. However, in addition, I also wanted to be in a tier where I was on equal ground with GS100+6 people, so that also meant that they could not be in the 51-tier for whatever I chose to synth, meaning that the synth has to be higher than 55.

As luck would have it, the two statements "no higher than a cap of 56" and "has to be higher than 55" narrowed down my options perfectly, in fact, giving me very little room to move about, and so, my options were narrowed down to only synths with a cap of GS56.

As luck would have it, there are only four synths in the game with a cap of GS56, and of the four, one stood out as a potential moneymaker: Combat Caster's Boomerangs +2.

My history with Combat Caster's Boomerangs go back to the time when I was trying to get GS55 and onto the Platinum road. I'd skillup on them, back when the NQ was still profitable, and the extra funds from buying the raw CCB via conquest points gave me a good financial boost that helped get me to GS60. It was really slow moving though, but I have CCB+1s to thank. Now, I guess I get to thank them again.

At GS56, I am exactly at the 31-tier with gear and advanced imagery (56+31 = 87 = 82+2+3). At the same time, 56+51 = 107, which puts this synth out of the 51-tier reach of people who have maxed out Goldsmithing. A quick check on the clock showed that it was, quite by chance, a New Moon, and with Watersday coming up, I decided to head down to Jeuno, to pick up some (7) Combat Caster's Boomerangs with my Windurstian conquest points, headed over to Rabao to desynth some Mythril Ingots, and just waited for Watersday to arrive.

These are the results:

All in all, four NQs and three HQs. The NQs sell for just over 100k each, although I'll be sure to bing that price down. XD The HQs currently go for 600k each, making this run a nice, 2.2m worth. Given that I had also bought my raw CCBs with Windurst conquest points, I find myself a tidy sum ahead, although it will take time to sell the CCB+2s.

But it's nice to know that the option's at least there for when I need it. ^^

Just a Quick Run

2006-06-03T12:10:00.002-07:00

Celestria contacted me while I was on my way through Mount Zhayolm to solo up some xp for BLM, and asked to have a few (8, to be exact) beads cut up for her. And so, after accidentally getting Phasma aggro while fighting a Wamoura Prince, I decided to Warp back to Al Zahbi and then we head off to Bastok to cut some Ores.

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 82.3
Skillup synth: Elemental Beads (various- cap 87)
Imagery Support: Advanced Imagery
Equipment of note: Auster's Staff, Goldsmithing Apron, Shaded Spectacles
Direction: South-East
Location: Bastok Goldsmithing Guild
Moghancement: Overwhelming Wind
Moon phase: Lightningsday, Full Moon (98%)

82.3(+5)
7:02 Success, +0.1!

82.4(+5)
7:15 Success.
7:27 Success.
7:40 Success.
7:53 Success, +0.1!

82.5
8:05 Success, +0.1!

82.6
8:18 Success, +0.1!

82.7
8:31 Failed- lost the (Fire) Ore.

I seem to be pretty lucky as far as the skillup/total synths ratio goes. Ten skillups in the last twenty synths? I'll take that. ^^ (Too bad about the Fire Ore though, although as Celestria put it, at least it was just the Fire one. :P)

Eighty-Two.

2006-05-31T21:12:00.000-07:00

Through other people rummaging through my blogs, I came into contact with another Woodworker, Celestria, who needed beads carved up for her. Seeing as how I couldn't refuse such an offer, she and I would occasionally correspond to setup some skillup/carving sessions together.

Last time we tried synthing, the results weren't exactly spectacular. Twelve synths later, I smashed two beads, and got a whole +0.1 for our troubles. This time however, would prove to be much different:

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 81.6
Skillup synth: Elemental Beads (various- cap 87)
Imagery Support: Advanced Imagery
Equipment of note: Auster's Staff, Goldsmithing Apron, Shaded Spectacles
Direction: South-East
Location: Bastok Goldsmithing Guild
Moghancement: Overwhelming Wind
Moon phase: Earthsday, Waning Crescent (26%)

81.6(+5)
8:34 Success, +0.1!

81.7(+5)
8:47 Success, +0.1!

81.8(+5)
9:01 Success, +0.1!

81.9(+5)
10:31 Success, +0.1!

Good grief, 4 skillups in a row. That's certainly a nice start to things. ^^

82.0(+5)
10:52 Success.
11:05 Success, +0.1!

82.1(+5)
11:18 Success.
11:30 Success.
12:00 Success.
12:13 Success, +0.1!

82.2(+5)
12:26 Success, +0.1!

82.3(+5)
12:48 Success.

6/12 skillups. Very nice, indeed! Even better, with advanced imagery, I am practically at the cap for Elemental Beads, so the chances of breaking are lower. ^^ Hopefully, I will have saved up enough money for when I'm done with the beads to continue onto Goldsmithing 90, and then, well...

...I'll think about how to cross that river once I reach it. XD

It all started with some Silver Earrings...

2006-05-15T16:29:00.000-07:00

I haven't been skilling up Goldsmithing, or doing much of anything GS-related recently. It's rather unfortunate, but my finances are still low after my Nobles Tunic purchase, and I don't feel like I can afford a few breaks, not to mention that it's really a pain to sell ELemental Beads on the Auction House, so I prefer to just wait for when Lilly needs a few more beads to HQ some staves.

However, I've been slowly handing in items for GP, for whenever the time comes to hit GS88 and get my Fool's Gold. The item for the day happened to be Silver Earrings, which goes for 250GP each. One way to go about GP items is to just buy the item from NPCs and hand those in. The gem shop down in Lower Jeuno sells Silver Earrings for about 1250 gil each, for a nice 1:5 ratio, which is my bar for handing in items.

However, I figured I might as well try HQ'ing some Silver Earrings for sale, and then just dump my NQs to the NPC for guild points. Sure, it's a lot more expensive that way, but the HQs offset the losses several times over.

So I took my spare Silver Ingots from storage, and bought up three additional stacks of Silver Ingots from the AH, then went to go synth up in Xarcabard, just for kicks (and just in case the ice weather affects HQ rates somehow). At the end of the day, I had ten Silver Earrings +1, which was far more than I could sell at one time. In addition, there were something like fourteen Silver Earrings +1 already on sale, and I didn't want to contribute to that pool at all.

So my attention then turned to Energy Earrings +1, which is something I haven't made in a while, but decided to try out again today, since I had some Onyxes lying around on a mule. Last time I tried making Energy Earrings +1, I was at the 31-tier for them, so just to see whether things have improved, I took a look at the recipe again.

Energy Earrings via Silver Earrings +1 are a level 30 synth.

I am GS81+5, putting me into the 51-tier. o.O

*light bulb*

Some time later,

I actually ended up getting seven Energy Earrings +1 out of my ten Silver Earrings +1, and so what was once worth 400k had been upgraded to a whooping 980k! I'm certainly happy about this, although selling them so far has been a real pain. -_-

But hey, I'm a ruthless undercutter, right?? -_-

Beads, Part II

2006-04-26T00:48:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I last skilled up, but today, as I was logging in, I found that Lilly had sent me a message, asking if I could carve more Ores for her. Of course, I didn't turn her down. ^^

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 81.1
Skillup synth: Elemental Beads (various- cap 87)
Imagery Support: Advanced Imagery
Equipment of note: Auster's Staff, Goldsmithing Apron, Shaded Spectacles
Direction: South-East
Location: Bastok Goldsmithing Guild
Moghancement: Overwhelming Wind
Moon phase: Windsday, Waxing Crescent (7%)

81.1(+5)
12:02 Success, +0.1!

81.2(+5)
12:15 Failed- lost the Lightning Ore.
12:33 Success.
12:46 Success, +0.1!

81.3(+5)
13:14 Success.
13:27 Success.
13:37 Success +0.1!

81.4(+5)
13:54 Success.
14:08 Success.
14:40 Success.
14:53 Success, +0.1!

81.5(+5)
15:06 Success.
15:23 Success.
15:36 Success.

And that was that. ^^

However, with the release of Treasures of Aht Urhgan, pressure is mounting to complete the Elemental Beads stage so I can get rid of all the Wicker Baskets that's clogging up my Mog Safe. With four jobs (three of which are 70+), storage is very tight, and if I am to level up one of the newly released jobs, I will definitely need to free up some space.

Of course, the surest way to do this would be to get my Fool's Gold, but I will need both Goldsmithing 88 and 150,000 guild points to do that. I'm slowly working on both of them though, and with any luck, it shouldn't be too much longer before I have free space again. ^^

Beads, Beads, Beads!

2006-04-10T23:44:00.000-07:00

It's been a long, long time since I last skilled up my Goldsmithing. One would think I'm rolling in the riches by now, but as it stands, I haven't actually been using much of my Goldsmithing to make money. I tried the odd rock-carving here and there (reminding me why I don't like cutting rocks -_-), but nothing too special, to be perfectly honest.

Instead, I worked on giving my Mog House a complete makeover, to make way for a whole lot of Wicker Baskets (51, to be exact), which would give me overwhelming Wind energy. Why? To help out with my Elemental Bead carvings. I certainly don't want to lose any of those...o.O

A whole lot of reshuffling around, and crimping my Mog Safe with gear from three jobs, as well as all the Wicker Baskets (one of the jobs had to give ; ;), I finally got overwhelming Wind energy in my Mog House. -_-

And so it was off to carving beads. I initially bought five beads- three Ice and two Earth, and carved them on a Full Moon, Windsday, to get no skillup. Fortunately, I didn't care so much since these aren't loss.

However, over the next few weeks, I was unable to sell them. I tried listing them on the Auction House once, but Woodworkers rarely actually buy them off the AH, or so it seems, and all five beads bounced. I didn't really want to pay the listing fee all over again. -_-

And so I held onto my beads, while trying to look for a Woodworker who might want Elemental Beads en masse. A few weeks later, no luck. ; ; It looked like I might just hit a dead end after all that.

But then, I decided to actually, y'know, afk-Bazaar outside the San d'Orian Woodworking guild (I never afk-Bazaar, for some reason -_-). While waiting for the airship, by complete stroke of luck, I happened to bump into Lilly, a JP Taru Woodworker who was in my Dynamis linkshell, until she quit the game. As it turns out, well, she came back (surprise, surprise).

We exchanged our greetings, and I let her know that I was now GS80 and could cut beads. As it turns out, she had a whole lot of Elemental Beads stocked up on her mule, and couldn't find a Goldsmither to cut them for her, so she asked if I would kindly carve them into Beads for her. Of course, I agreed!

So she went about muling all the ores over while I went to get a quick lunch, and by the time I got back, we were ready to head over to Bastok to get some carving done!

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 80.0
Skillup synth: Elemental Beads (various- cap 87)
Imagery Support: Advanced Imagery
Equipment of note: Auster's Staff, Goldsmithing Apron, Shaded Spectacles
Direction: South-East
Location: Bastok Goldsmithing Guild
Moghancement: Overwhelming Wind
Moon phase: Windsday, Waning Gibbous (88%)

80.0(+5)
16:45 Success, +0.1!

80.1(+5)
17:00 Success, +0.1!

80.2(+5)
17:16 Success.
17:30 Success.
17:43 Success, +0.1!

80.3(+5)
17:56 Success.
18:11 Success, +0.1!

80.4(+5)
19:05 Success, +0.1!

80.5(+5)
19:19 Success.
19:32 Success.
19:52 Success.
20:06 Success.
20:20 Success, +0.1!

80.6(+5)
20:34 Success.
21:07 Success.
21:21 Success.
21:34 Success.
21:46 Success, +0.1!

80.7(+5)
21:59 Success, +0.1!

80.8(+5)
22:13 Success, +0.1!

80.9(+5)
22:32 Success, +0.1!

Four skillups in a row. o.O Why couldn't this have happened in the middle of gold hell? I'd have saved myself tons of money! >_< For the record, that was an entire level in just 21 synths, so waaaay below average. But like I said, too bad these are actually profit synths, instead of {money}{/toss} synths. ; ;

81.0(+5)
23:16 Success.
23:30 Success.
23:44 Success.
23:57 Success, +0.1!

My last synth would be done on Iceday, Waning Gibbous (86%). To be honest, I was nervous about this last synth, since Ice is well, strong against Wind, so I have an increased chance of breaking. >_<

81.1(+5)
0:14 Success.

Phew. I have to admit, I was quite nervous during all that, being paranoid at breaking somebody else's ores. Thankfully, and to my surprise, none of them failed, which I guess was partially due to the good timing on Windsday. Lilly was so happy with the results, she even offered to sign me an HQ staff from the beads I carved, so I'm definitely looking forward to her present. ^^ She even bought both my Earth Beads at a discounted rate, although that was all she could afford at the time.

I don't blame her though. Thinking back, that was some 13 million gil worth of Elemental Beads I just carved through. Scary...

Anyway, I don't know whether Lilly will continue to supply me with Ores to carve. Hopefully some kind of Goldsmither-Woodworker duo will arise out of this, but for now, I'll leave that to later. ^^

Gold Hell complete!

2006-03-15T23:57:00.000-08:00

Once again, I planned for skilling up on the next coming Darksday, New Moon, and in preparation for its arrival, I stocked up four sets of synths (that is, 48 Gold Ingots and 48 vials of Mercury) in my Mog Safe. I felt it was important for me to get this over and done with, not only just for completeness' sake, but also because it's almost certain that Bastok would be back in its usual third place next week, and there was no telling when the next time I'd get easy access to lots of Targes would be. >_<

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 79.0
Skillup synth: Gold Buckler (cap 80)
Imagery Support: None
Equipment of note: Pluto's Staff
Direction: North
Location: Deegis's Armour (H-6)
Moghancement: Powerful Fire
Moon phase: Darksday, New Moon (2%)

79.0
0:01 Success.
0:22 Success.
0:35 Failed- lost the targe.
0:47 Failed- lost the gold ingot, targe.
0:59 Success.
1:47 Success.
2:25 Success, +0.1!

79.1
2:41 Success.
2:55 Success.
3:07 Success.
3:21 Success.
3:37 Failed- lost the gold ingot.
3:55 Success.
5:15 Success.
6:08 Success.
6:22 Success.
6:38 Success.
6:58 Success, +0.1!

I have to admit, it wasn't exactly the most encouraging of starts. I was debating for a while over whether I should wait for another day while desynthing some of the Gold Bucklers, but eventually decided that, come hell or high water, I was going to get Goldsmithing 80 tonight! >_<

79.2
7:20 Success, +0.1!

79.3
7:36 Success.
10:02 Success.
10:15 Success.
10:28 Success.
10:43 Success.
10:57 Success.
11:11 Success, +0.1!

79.4
19:08 Success.
19:22 Failed- lost the mercury, +0.1!

79.5
19:50 Success.
20:14 Failed- lost the mercury, targe.
20:28 Success.
20:44 Success, +0.1!

79.6
21:05 Success.
21:21 Success.
22:07 Success.
22:23 Success.
22:37 Success.
22:55 Success.

It now turned to Firesday, New Moon (0%).

2:00 Success.
2:12 Success, +0.1!

79.7
2:27 Success.
2:42 Success, +0.1!

79.8
2:57 Success.
3:09 Success.
3:26 Success.
3:38 Success.
5:39 Success.
5:51 Success.
6:26 Success.
6:39 Success.
6:52 Success, +0.1!

79.9
7:12 Success, +0.1!

It is done. Goldsmithing 80. OMG, OMG, OMG, I am finally done with the Goldsmithing hell. {/joy}

The sense of accomplishment of going through Goldsmithing hell and making it out in one piece on the other side is just marvellous. On another note, I sure am glad I sold my Hedgehog Bomb for 4m, because as it turns out, I ended up just shy of 4m in the end, so yeah, I really ended up needing that in the end. ^^;

And then there was one.

2006-03-14T10:23:00.000-08:00

Sometime before this, I got Nappycat to synth me some Targes since he'd get some Smithing skillups, and I have yet to meet somebody who'd turn down an offer for free skillup anyway. ^^

The result of that was I managed to get some +0.1 skill out of eight Targes or so, although I do not remember where that second +0.1 came from that separated my last records from today's.

Anyway, Bastok had (finally) gotten out of third place, so it was time to skillup again!

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 78.3
Skillup synth: Gold Buckler (cap 80)
Imagery Support: Advanced Imagery support
Equipment of note: Pluto's Staff
Direction: North
Location: Deegis's Armour (H-6)
Moghancement: Powerful Fire
Moon phase: Darksday, Waning Crescent (12%)

78.3 (+5)
6:34 Success.
6:47 Success.
7:01 Success.
8:26 Success.

I took off my shades and apron at this point, bringing me down to an effective 78.3 (+3).

78.3 (+3)
8:46 Success.
8:53 Success, +0.1!

78.4
9:06 Success.
9:30 Success, +0.1!

Imagery wore, so I put my GOldsmithing gear back on to compensate for it.

78.5 (+2)
11:28 Success.
11:42 Success.
12:09 Failed- lost the Mercury.
12:24 Success.
14:27 Success, +0.1!

78.6 (+2)
14:40 Success.
14:54 Success.
15:07 Success.
15:21 Success, +0.1!

78.7 (+2)
15:35 Success.
15:50 Success.
16:03 Success, +0.1!

78.8 (+2)
16:17 Success.
20:01 Success.
20:20 Failed- lost the gold ingot, Mercury.
20:32 Success.
20:45 Success.
22:39 Success.
22:52 Success.
23:04 Success.

At this point, I didn't know whether to continue or not. Recalling some horrendous streaks where I'd go for double digit synths before seeing a skillup, I have to admit, I was hesitant to continue at this point. However, so close to 79...; ;

I decided to take off my shades and apron to see what would happen.

78.8
23:27 Success.
23:40 Success.
23:53 Success, +0.1!

By now, it had turned to Firesday, New Moon (10%). I didn't relly want to synth on a non-Darksday, but in the end just decided to go for it. After all, I was just 0.1 away from my goal! ^^

78.9
3:12 Success.
3:30 Success.
3:48 Success, +0.1!

Goldsmithing 79! Just one more level separates me from the end of gold hell! On another note, I decided to check in with Fatimah to see what she advices me to synth next, and lo and behold:

It's almost time. ^^

But first! One more level of Goldsmithing to go, and I'm going to have to go under some major Mog House renovation to switch my Moghancement over to overwhelming wind! I do not want to break any beads! >_<

About Gold Bucklers

2006-03-14T03:46:00.000-08:00

It's time to take a break and do some random commentary on my current state of things.

As you might have noticed, my current skillup synth right now are Gold Bucklers, which is the "traditional" route most people take up to Goldsmithing 80, where they cap. At current prices, they are only slightly cheaper than Gold Gauntlets to make, since the cost of a Targe offsets the cost of two Cermet Chunks, but the tradeoff is a worse desynth return.

Here're the details as I know it:

Gold Buckler (cap: Goldsmithing 80)
1x Gold Ingot
1x Mercury
1x Target

Gold Buckler Desynth:
NQ: Iron Ingot
HQ1: Holly Lumber
HQ2: Mercury
HQ3: Gold Ingot

In practical terms, this is significantly worse that the Gold Gauntlets desynth that goes Mercury, Cermet Chunk x2, Cermet Chunk x3, Gold Ingot. Holly Lumber is a terrible resale (relatively speaking), and I always /fume when I see the HQ animation go off only to get a block of wood. -_-

Anyway, the final ingredient, the Targe, is what prompted me to write this entry.

Targes are occasionally found on the AH, usually at just over breakeven prices, so buying them up as you see them isn't such a bad idea. I suppose you could try to make connections and stock up on a lot of Targes, like how one finds a Bonecrafter when looking for Bone Patas en masse, but not many people skillup on Targes at that point in Smithing. This is unlike Bonecraft, where Bonecrafters know to look for an up-and-coming Goldsmither to dump all their Bone Patas on.

So, you can make the Targets yourself, or at least, I could, since I had the requisite Smithing skill.

Targe (cap: Smithing 36)
2x Iron Sheet
1x Holly Lumber

Only problem is, first of all, I'm terribly lazy, as I'm quick to admit, and furthermore, I can't stand the idea of buying the Iron Sheets when I could just make them (cheaper) from Iron Ingots. Ah, but then I'm lazy, so I don't really want to do 24 synths just to ready the Iron Sheets, then another twelve just to make my materials for my GS skillup synth! ^^

I gave a friend, Nappycat a hand at some Targes, since he could skillup on them, and besides, I had yet to meet somebody who'd turn down a chance at free skillups. However, I still had to procure the materials, so this wasn't terribly ideal, at least from my point of view.

The other alternative is to buy them from NPC. They are sold from Zemedars, who resides around (H-6) in Bastok Mines.

The problem is, Zemedars only sells Targes when Bastok is not in third place on the Conquest standings. Unfortunately, if your server is anything like mine, Bastok tends to like occupying the last place spot (hence, "Lastok") so it's quite rare to be able to actually buy Targes from him.

I suppose I kinda lucked out though. Just two weeks ago, Bastok was in second place, and that allowed me to do my earlier skillup binge. However, knowing the conquest was going to be retallied, I made a mental note to buy up a whole lot of Targes and store them on a mule (something you might want to consider doing) for when Bastok was in its usual third place, but for some reason, I was just busy with other things and never got around to it.

Thus, my dismay the following week, when, lo and behold, Bastok was in third place and I couldn't get a lot of Targes quickly and conveniently. -_- Fortunately, Bastok is actually in first place this week (a real rarity, btw), so my goal is to complete the Gold Buckler road, and finish off the Gold hell by the end of this week!

Almost there...

2006-03-05T16:47:00.000-08:00

I actually did a smaller skillup run prior to this, but for some reason, I seem to have misplaced my recordings, so all I can say is that I took twelve synths to get a whole +0.2. ; ;

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 77.3
Skillup synth: Gold Buckler (cap 80)
Imagery Support: None
Equipment of note: Pluto's Staff
Direction: North
Location: Deegis's Armour (H-6)
Moghancement: Powerful Fire
Moon phase: Darksday, Waning Crescent (21%)

77.3
0:03 Success.
0:22 Success.
0:38 Success.
2:35 Failed- lost the gold ingot, targe.
2:59 Success.
4:10 Success.
5:04 Success.
5:20 Success, +0.1!

I had a tough decision to make during this. On the one hand, I had gone through quite a lot of trouble to make sure I had enough materials to go through with this. On the other hand, eight synths before a skillup may be a sign of a bad day to skill, as evidenced by my previous bad streaks. Eratosthenes was also skilling up his Clothcraft, and went 2/14 in terms of skillups, so I figured I might as well do fourteen synths and see if I do better. ^^

77.4
6:10 Failed- critical failure, +0.1!

77.5
6:26 Failed.
6:40 Success.
6:55 Success.
7:18 Success, +0.1!

77.5 (+5)
10:47 Success.
10:59 Success, +0.1!

Okay, technically that was 3/15 skillups, but since one of the failures had no loss, I didn't count that one in. ^^

For some reason though, and I'm not sure why, I started putting on the full imagery support and Goldsmithing gear to boost myself an effective five levels, or two pseudo-levels above cap. I'm still unsure whether this was a good move or not, but my skillup rate post-imagery sure seemed to support the idea that imagery past cap is a good thing:

77.6 (+5)
11:16 Success.
11:28 Success.
11:44 Success, +0.1!

77.7 (+5)
14:28 Success, +0.1!

77.8 (+5)
14:41 Success, +0.1!

77.9 (+5)
14:55 Success.
15:09 Success.
15:26 Success, +0.1!

78.0 (+5)
15:45 Success.
15:59 Success.
20:15 Success, +0.1!

78.1 (+5)
20:28 Success, +0.1!

78.2 (+5)
22:11 Success.
22:24 Success.
22:38 Success.
22:53 Success.

A New Moon...

2006-02-24T12:48:00.000-08:00

It's a New Moon! And Darksday, too! Thanks to the MithraPride Vana'diel Clock, I've been able to plan for today, and have been prepping up for this day. Cermet Chunks are in oversupply in Jeuno, and I managed to save about 10k gil from snagging stacks from undercutters, although the real cramp on my skilling is the shortage of Mercury.

And so, I've been camping the Fishing guild down in Bibiki Bay for the past few days. Other people also wait for the guild to open, but I can still get roughly four stacks of Cobalt Jellyfish before the guild's daily supply is all bought out, which is enough for a stack of Mercury or more, if I HQ. Pretty nice- I get to save about 20k per stack of Mercury, although I can't help but feel my efforts are slightly misdirected, seeing as how I can make more money HQ'ing Silver Earrings than synthing Mercury.

But, oh wait, the Auction Houses are all out of Mercury. Right, so that's why I've been camping the guild!

Anyway, my goal was to get that last level off Gold Gauntlets, where it was then time for the final push through Gold hell- Gold Bucklers. The good news is that I actually calculated the costs, and I think done correctly, the monetary cost for Gold Bucklers is just slightly cheaper than Gold Gauntlets, although they don't desynth as well. Hoepfully I'll have enough money to last me through to level 80, although I have this sinking feeling I will run out sometime at Goldsmithing 79.

Anyway...

This skillup session was split into two sessions- one at the New Moon, and one at the Darksday prior, so a Waning Crescent. I had to cut the first skillup session short, because I ran out of Mercury, and had no way of picking up some more in time. >_< (Hence my running over to Bibiki)

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 76.0
Skillup synth: Gold Gauntlets (cap 77)
Imagery Support: None
Equipment of note: Pluto's Staff
Direction: North
Location: Rosel's Armour Shop (K-8)
Moghancement: Powerful Fire
Moon phase: Darksday, Waning Crescent (21%)

76.0
4:40 Success, +0.1!

76.1
4:59 Success.
5:20 Success, +0.1!

76.2
5:34 Success.
5:53 Success, +0.1!

76.3
7:33 Success, +0.1!

76.4
7:50 Success.
8:04 Success.
8:17 Success, +0.1!

76.5
8:55 Success.
9:11 Success.
12:44 Success.
13:00 Success.

No skillup in the last four synths. ; ; Ah well...there was always the New Moon to look forward to:

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 76.5
Skillup synth: Gold Gauntlets (cap 77)
Imagery Support: None
Equipment of note: Pluto's Staff
Direction: North
Location: Rosel's Armour Shop (K-8)
Moghancement: Powerful Fire
Moon phase: Darksday, New Moon (2%)

76.5
0:05 Success, +0.1!

76.6
0:18 Success.
0:32 Success.
0:47 Success.
2:16 Failed- lost two Cermet Chunks, mercury.
2:30 Success.

I complained about not getting skillups, when Seraphpdh mentioned avoiding the early mornings, instead trying for close to dawn. Looking back at my last notes, I saw a good skillup run around 5 o'clock, so I just sat around desynthing until then.

5:03 Success, +0.1!

Guess he was right. ^^

76.7
5:23 Success, +0.1!

76.8
5:42 Success.
6:06 Success.
7:16 Success, +0.1!

76.9
9:27 Success, +0.1!

Goldsmithing 77! Three more levels to go! Even better, that only took up twenty-five synths, or two stacks of Gold Ingots, so I just saved about 1.5m gil there on ingredients, which will come in very handy when the time comes to make that last push through to 80. ^^

I moved onto Gold Bucklers now:

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 77.0
Skillup synth: Gold Gauntlets (cap 77)
Imagery Support: None
Equipment of note: Pluto's Staff
Direction: North
Location: Rosel's Armour Shop (K-8)
Moghancement: Powerful Fire
Moon phase: Darksday, New Moon (2%)

77.0
10:54 Success, +0.1!

77.1
11:09 Success.
18:55 Failed- lost the Gold Ingot.
19:09 Success.

And then I ran out of Targes. >_< Oh well, I can easily make some more Targes anyway- they just take time to make, because you need a piece of Holly Lumber (which is easy to get), but you also need two Iron Sheets, which are proving to be more of a challenge. Iron Ingots are low in supply for some reason, and the sheets are likewise. I guess I'll just personally sheet up a stack of Iron Ingots in preparation for this, but so far, I've only been able to get one stack of Iron Ingots...perhaps it's time to get out my Worker's gear again and go mining? >_<

Skilling with a Vengeance

2006-02-21T20:43:00.000-08:00

I'm really tired right now, so I'll cut to the chase:

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 75.0
Skillup synth: Gold Gauntlets (cap 77)
Imagery Support: None
Equipment of note: Pluto's Staff
Direction: North
Location: Rosel's Armour Shop (K-8)
Moghancement: Powerful Fire
Moon phase: Darksday, Waxing Gibbous (64%)

75.0
4:57 Success.
5:12 Success.
5:28 Failed- lost the gold ingot, two Leather Gloves, +0.1!

My gosh, I skilled up! The bad streak is over!

75.1
5:55 Success, +0.1!

Yep. The bad streak is over (/joy)

75.2
6:28 Failed- lost a Cermet Chunk, a vial of Mercury, a pair of Leather Gloves, +0.1!

75.3
6:52 Success.
9:52 Failed- lost a Cermet Chunk, a pair of Leather Gloves.
10:06 Success.
10:20 Success, +0.1!

75.4
11:46 Failed- lost a vial of mercury, a pair of Leather Gloves, +0.1!

75.5
12:19 Success.
12:48 Failed- lost a gold ingot, a pair of Leather Gloves, a vial of Mercury, and a Cermet Chunk.
16:46 Success.
17:15 Success.
17:42 Success.
18:22 Success, +0.1!

75.6
20:17 Success.
20:35 Success.

Later in the day, I tried again:

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 75.6
Skillup synth: Gold Gauntlets (cap 77)
Imagery Support: None
Equipment of note: Pluto's Staff
Direction: North
Location: Rosel's Armour Shop (K-8)
Moghancement: Powerful Fire
Moon phase: Darksday, Waxing Gibbous (83%)

75.6
11:57 Success, +0.1!

75.7
12:15 Success.
12:42 Success.
13:02 Success, +0.1!

75.8
13:22 Success.
14:15 Success.
14:29 Failed- lost the gold ingot, two pairs of Leather Gloves, +0.1!

75.9
14:49 Success.
15:05 Success, +0.1!

Finally, Goldsmithing 76! ^^

76.0
16:47 Success.
17:05 Failed- lost two Cermet Chunks, a pair of Leather Gloves.

Doing the math, it took me 27 synths without yesterday's silliness, and 48 synths with. Either way, four stacks of Gold Ingots per level (at current prices, 5,600,000 gil) seems to be sufficient, with plenty of room for error, ala stupid, no-skillup streaks. -_-

Now, unfortunately, at that price, I only have enough money for three more levels...maybe I might just get stuck at Goldsmithing 79 after all. >_<

What the...

2006-02-20T22:24:00.000-08:00

I'm too depressed right now to really go through the details, but in a nutshell:

21 synths since dinging 75.0.

14 Gold Gauntlets, 3 Morion Earrings, 4 Gold Bucklers later.

Approximate cost of 2.7m.

ZERO skillups.

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 75.0
Skillup synth: Gold Gauntlets (cap 77)
Imagery Support: None
Equipment of note: Pluto's Staff
Direction: North
Location: Rosel's Armour Shop (K-8)
Moghancement: Powerful Fire
Moon phase: Darksday, Waxing Crescent (7%)

75.0
6:15 Success.
6:30 Failed- lost a Cermet Chunk.
6:48 Success.
7:08 Success.
7:38 Failed- lost the mercury, 2 Leather Gloves, and a Cermet Chunk.
7:59 Failed- lost the gold ingot, Mercury, a Cermet Chunk, and 1 Leather Gloves.

Learning from before, I stopped synthing. I should've taken this to heed, but I decided to try again the next Darksday.

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 75.0
Skillup synth: Gold Gauntlets (cap 77)
Imagery Support: None
Equipment of note: Pluto's Staff
Direction: North
Location: Rosel's Armour Shop (K-8)
Moghancement: Powerful Fire
Moon phase: Darksday, Waxing Crescent (26%)

75.0
0:05 Success.
0:25 Success.
0:39 Success.
0:53 Success.

Altogether, that's fourteen consecutive synths over three skillup sessions with no skillup. Perhaps the reported cap of Goldsmithing 77 was wrong, and I've been working on a Goldsmithing 75 recipe all this while? I decided to try other things.

Like Morion Earrings:

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 75.0
Skillup synth: Morion Earring (cap 78)
Imagery Support: Advanced Imagery
Equipment of note: Shaded Spectacles, Goldsmith's Apron, Auster's Staff
Direction: South-East
Location: Bastok Goldsmith's Guild
Moghancement: Powerful Fire
Moon phase: Darksday, Waxing Crescent (26%)

75.0
14:32 Success.
14:49 Success.
17:03 Success.

No skillup. I moved onto something harder after I noticed the Jeuno AH had some Targets for sale- Gold Bucklers.

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 75.0
Skillup synth: Gold Buckler (cap 80)
Imagery Support: None
Equipment of note: Shaded Spectacles, Goldsmith's Apron, Pluto's Staff
Direction: North
Location: Mog House
Moghancement: Powerful Fire
Moon phase: Darksday, Waxing Crescent (26%)

75.0
19:19 Success.
19:32 Failed- lost the Gold Ingot, Targe.
19:47 Success.
19:59 Failed- critical failure.

2,710,000 gil. All to waste. /sigh.

Half-way through hell!

2006-02-19T21:07:00.000-08:00

I set the plan into action today, moving onto Gold Gauntlets with my increased cash reserves. To make a Gold Gauntlet, you need to melt together a Gold Ingot, two Cermet Chunks, a vial of Mercury, and two Leather Gloves. The Gloves can be bought at the armour shop in Southern San d'Oria for 331 gil each, making this a relatively cheap synth.

Gold Gauntlets also have an Alchemy 54 subcraft requirement, but fortunately, I already had Alchemy 60 leveled. ^^

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 74.4
Skillup synth: Gold Gauntlets (cap 77)
Imagery Support: None
Equipment of note: Shaded Spectacles, Goldsmith's Apron, Pluto's Staff
Direction: North
Location: Rosel's Armour Shop (K-8)
Moghancement: Powerful Fire
Moon phase: Darksday, Waxing Crescent (7%)

74.4
16:37 Failed- lost 1 Leather Glove, 1 Cermet Chunk.
16:59 Success.
17:14 Success, +0.1!

74.5
17:28 Success.
17:42 Success, +0.1!

74.6
18:02 Success.
18:18 Success.
19:44 Success.

I waited for another Darksday before continuing on with my skilling. This time, the day/moon phase was Darksday, Waning Crescent (31%)

74.6
10:40 Success, +0.1!

74.7
11:03 Success, +0.1!

74.8
11:20 Success.
11:36 Success.
12:06 Success.
12:33 Success.
12:49 Success.

Given the five, no-skillup streak, I decided to take off my shades and apron.

13:20 Failed- lost the gold ingot, 1 Leather Glove, +0.1!

Seemed to work. ^^

74.9
13:39 Failed- lost two Leather Gloves, +0.1!

Goldsmithing 75! I am now officially half-way through Goldsmithing hell! ^^ I particularly quite liked that last skillup synth,

Failed, skillup, and only lost two Leather Gloves and a Fire Crystal for a total of what, 1,000 gil? That's by far the cheapest skillup I've had in a long, long time. Practically free. ^^

75.0
14:16 Success.
14:35 Success.
15:18 Failed- lost the gold ingot, 1 Cermet Chunk, 1 Leather Glove.
15:34 Success.

Ah well. I hit Goldsmithing 75, which is good enough for me. ^^

The plan.

2006-02-19T06:31:00.000-08:00

Ashuras have plummeted. I don't know what drives people to undercut to the point where Ashuras are a more of a loss than other synths, but evidently the collective logic isn't rational at all.

Thus, I've seen searching for other recipies to skillup off. Somehow, I ended up in a conversation with my Goldsmithing partner-of-sorts, Nynaeve, and we got talking once again. She suggested I skillup on Gold Gauntlets, which, after looking at things, is a pretty good idea, since it's not all that lossy, I'm not help back by the AH like Ashuras, is a good four levels above me (I suspect my bad Ashura run was largely due to the fact that I'm only 0.6 away from cap).

It was somewhere in there that we made the following observation.

Look at the price of Gold Ingots on the Odin server as of two days ago (17th February):

Now, look at the price of Gold Earrings:

Can you believe it? An 80k profit a synth?? As I put it, "You know how much trouble this would've saved me if Gold Earrings were profit?! /fume" Up-and-coming Goldsmithers are having it easy, I'm guessing largely because there are quite a lot of Goldsmithers in the 70s, although that's just speculation. I really don't see how Gold Earrings can be profitable. >_<

Anyway, I've sold my gear, including my beloved Nobles Tunic, after talking to Nynaeve about it, and thinking a whole lot. Hopefully, the money I get from selling my Nobles, and my Blessed Set will be enough to make that final push to Goldsmithing 80. I'm sitting on 23 million gil right now, and if my calculations are right, that might _just_ get me to Goldsmithing 80. If it isn't enough money, then I have about 300 Beastman's Seals to help raise the money for that final push through.

Such is the plan.

Now to wait for a Darksday, New Moon. -_-

Alas, it was not to be...

2006-02-01T10:02:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning to find that the Vana'diel clock was actually wrong in its timing, and that my favoured Darksday, Waxing Crescent (26%) actually occured some two hours earlier than I thought it did.

And so, I hurriedly bought up some ingredients, and sat down to synth, eager to push on through the 70s. Unfortunately...

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 74.3
Skillup synth: Ashura (cap 75)
Imagery Support: None
Equipment of note: Pluto's Staff
Direction: North
Location: Mog House
Moghancement: Powerful Fire
Moon phase: Darksday, Waxing Crescent (7%)

74.3
5:24 Failed- lost the gold thread, uchigatana.
5:38 Success.
5:52 Success.
6:09 Success.
6:22 Success.
6:36 Success.
6:49 Success.
7:02 Success.
7:17 Success.
7:29 Success.
7:44 Success, +0.1!

74.4
8:02 Success.

Yep. A whole twelve synths, and only a +0.1 to show for it. /sigh. The math works out to aboue 1.15m for that 0.1, making it one of the more expensive point-oh-ones I've had in a while, and pushing my total Ashura count for 74->75 way up. /sigh...

Well, I guess that's confirmation enough that if it's a bad day, just stop after three or four synths. The better question is though, what is the minimum number of synths you need to tell?

Seventy-Four! ^^

2006-02-01T02:50:00.000-08:00

Given how I ended my last run at just 0.1 away from 74, I felt that I couldn't wait for my ideal Waxing Crescent (26%) to come around, and decided to try out the New Moon instead, after I saw it was Lightsday, New Moon (5%) one day. Besides, I had heard from other sources that Darksday, New Moon is the best for skillup, although I personally had doubts of my own. I figured I might as well test it out, while my skillup synths were (relatively) cheap-ish.

And so I bought up my ingredients in advance, like any crafter should, only to find that come Darksday, it had changed to Waxing Crescent, 7%. >_<

So much for testing out New Moons, I guess...

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 73.9
Skillup synth: Ashura (cap 75)
Imagery Support: None
Equipment of note: Pluto's Staff
Direction: North
Location: Mog House
Moghancement: Powerful Fire
Moon phase: Darksday, Waxing Crescent (7%)

73.9
5:57 Success.
6:10 Success, +0.1!

Ta-dah! Goldsmithing 74! ^^

74.0
6:28 Success, +0.1!

74.1
6:41 Success.
6:54 Success, +0.1!

74.2
7:08 Success.
7:22 Success.
7:35 Success.
7:47 Success.
8:00 Success.
9:25 Success, +0.1!

74.3
9:44 Success.

Well, that was +0.4 in twelve synths, so a flat out 3 synths per +0.1, as expected. Getting to 74 from 73 also took 29 Ashura synths, so that pretty much mimics the pace here. I guess from that, I will only need another 21 Ashuras to hit 75, and officially reach the half way point in the gold hell. Of course, then the synths get a whole lot worse...

...but I can worry about that some other time. ^^;

However, there is one thing I've been meaning to touch upon, and that is the "responsible crafting" versus "powerleveling a craft". I'm personally not a huge fan of powerleveling through a craft, simply because my attention span just isn't long enough for me to sit through a few concentrated days and get a craft to 60. In addition, I am also admittedly lazy, so even if I do have the things, I still have to drag myself to the correct place and skillup, and that is clearly asking for too much.

And so, I've been saving and going slowly through the Goldsmithing levels, until Christmas came around, and suddenly the price of Gold Ingots shot up 700k a stack. Actually, the total price increase was by a whole 1m/stk, so Gold Ingots effectively doubled in price.

While I may not have felt the pinch right now, seeing as how Ashuras have also risen in price, once I am done with Ashuras, I will be back to either desynthing or NPC'ing my products, at which point the newly inflated prices will hurt. A lot.

I then think over to Mikejustice, who just powered through his way through the 70s, buying up thirty stacks of Gold Ingots back when the price was just over 1m/stk (I think they were 1.3m/stk or so) and storing all his Ashuras on mules and what-not. The result is that he's now in the high 80s, having gone thorugh the 70s before the price increase, and he is better off for it.

Of course, he had the financial reserves to do so, but I too had a decent amount of cash lying around with me that I could've used to pump into some Ashuras, or heck, I should've just bought up some Gold Ingots in advance and tried hedging my losses, since I was sure to use Gold Ingots sometime.

But alas, I didn't, and that is a mistake I made. Oh well. Just something to think about the next time you criticize someone for powerleveling. ^^

{I'm back!}

2006-01-31T02:33:00.000-08:00

Yowzers, it's been a while. Granted, my break from the game did little to help out in this respect, but I haven't been able to garden as of late simply because I've been jetting all over the world (irl), so the pots would have to wait for a time where I would actually be in one plane two check the plants for two weeks.

Actually, I wonder if anyone even reads this blog, since it is a rather niche topic, but I guess for the sake of interest, I might as well keep it going.

The inflation of last Christmas affected me slightly. Gold Ingots went shooting up to about 2.1m/stk now, as opposed to 1.4m/stk when I took my break. I have this gut feeling that those extra 700ks will eventually add up, although the good news is that the Ashura price on the AH has also gone up, so I still effectively lose just a Gold Thread per synth. Too bad those have gone up to 1.1m/stk, so I've been trying to get the odd thread or two from camping the Clothcrafting guild in Windy as of late.

It's still some 73k per thread, but that's still better than the 90k or so the AH asks for.

I tried synthing up some Ashuras before I left. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to key in the data before leaving, so I don't remember the specifics, but I managed to get +0.2 in four synths, putting me at 73.6.

It is from there that I continue.

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 73.6
Skillup synth: Ashura (cap 75)
Imagery Support: None
Equipment of note: Pluto's Staff
Direction: North
Location: Mog House
Moghancement: Powerful Fire
Moon phase: Darksday, Waning Crescent (31%)

73.6
3:11 Success, +0.1!

73.7
3:30 Success.
3:45 Success.
3:59 Success.

After waiting for some of the Ashuras to sell, I tried again, with the same conditions, except that the moon phase had now changed to Darksday, Waning Crescent (12%).

5:45 Success, +0.1!

73.8
5:58 Success.
6:11 Failed- lost the gold ingot, gold thread.
7:37 Success, +0.1!

So just 0.1 separates me from Goldsmithing 74. I'll get that tomorrow, when the moonphase lines up to be just the combination I like it at, although I really ought to give this Darksday, New Moon thing a try sometime. It's been 27 Ashura synths up to 73.9 though, so that's exactly on par with the "3-synths-per-skillup" idea, so I guess I shouldn't really be complaining. ^^

It's been a while...

2005-12-15T18:53:00.000-08:00

Wow...it's nearly been three weeks since I last tried skilling up, mostly because those Ashuras probably turned out to be a bigger pain to unload than what I expected.

On the plus side, not skilling up on the scheduled time meant that I actually, if at least briefly, had a whole lotta money on me! XD I finally crossed over the 10m mark in my walletaru for the first time, and I have to admit, it looked rather pretty...

...But I guess gil in the pocket is not much good, and besides, will even depreciate in value as time goes on. So...pretty while it may be, I eventually spent some, bringing me back down to the under-10m mark. ; ;

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 73.0
Skillup synth: Ashura (cap 75)
Imagery Support: None
Equipment of note: Pluto's Staff, Shaded Spectacles
Direction: North
Location: Mog House
Moghancement: Powerful Fire
Moon phase: Darksday, Waxing Crescent (26%)

73.0
14:17 Success.
14:30 Success.
14:42 Success.
14:54 Success, +0.1!

73.1
15:07 Success, +0.1!

73.2
15:21 Success.
16:49 Success, +0.1!

73.3
17:02 Success.
17:14 Success.
17:27 Success, +0.1!

73.4
17:41 Success.
17:54 Success.

It'll be slow going from here, at least for a while as I'll be taking a break from the game for a month or so. We'll see what happens when I get back. ^^

The unwritten agreement

2005-11-25T18:29:00.000-08:00

After waiting for about a week, the moon and the day lined up once again. A few post sago, I found I had excellent skillup rates on Darksday, Waxing Crescent (26%), and since then, I've been trying to concentrate the bulk of my skilling on those times.

Actually, I find that the moon phases just before and after New Moon have been rather favourable towards skilling for me. I'm not sure what to think about the actual New Moon though...

There was a little hiccup in the way involving Mikesjustice (you may or may not have heard of him), who is also leveling up Goldsmithing on one of his mules. He started the Ashura stage earlier than I, and consequently is also skilling up on them. However, he listed a whole seven Ashuras up on the AH, bringing the total Ashura count up to 11! This annoyed me, since I've been making a conscious effort at keeping the number of Ashuras on the AH down, so as to somewhat minimize any pressure to undercut. Fortunately, a quick /tell to Mike was all it took for him to see my side of things, and after a (rather sheepish) "oops >_<", or something to that extent, he agreed and hopefully things will be back under control.

His Ashuras have now cleared, and hopefully this unwritten agreement between the Goldsmithers to keep the numbers low and price high lasts. I still sense that the price will fall though, so there still is some pressure to get out of this stage quickly.

Anyway, I bought up twelve synths worth, and started cranking them out!

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 72.5
Skillup synth: Ashura (cap 75)
Imagery Support: None
Equipment of note: Pluto's Staff, Shaded Spectacles
Direction: North
Location: Mog House
Moghancement: Powerful Fire
Moon phase: Darksday, Waxing Crescent (26%)

72.5
6:42 Success.
6:55 Success, +0.1!

72.6
7:06 Success.
7:19 Success.
7:36 Success, +0.1!

72.7
7:50 Success.
8:02 Success.
8:15 Success.
9:42 Success, +0.1!

72.8
9:55 Success, +0.1!

72.9
10:07 Failed- lost the Gold Ingot, Gold Thread, +0.1!

Gotta love those triple consecutive skillups! ^^

73.0
10:30 Failed.
11:05 Success.
12:25 Success.

Two more levels of Ashuras to go, then it's basically the home run stretch of synthing and desynthing whatever I made to claw up to 80. I think I've done a pretty good job at keeping my finances in shape. While admittedly, the pace isn't the fastest around, it's consistent, and money-wise, I am no poorer now than when I embarked upon Goldsmithing hell three levels ago. Quite hard to believe though, I'm almost a third of the way through! :D

Anyway, I've counted up the total number of synths for 72-73 (41 synths), so not only is that a lot of Ashuras I need to (somehow) get rid of, assuming current prices of a Gold Ingot for 110k, Gold Thread for 60k, and an Uchigatana for 3.6k, along with a sellback price of 110k (which cancels out the Gold Ingot), skilling up from 72 to 73 cost me 2,607,600 gil...

...Which really isn't too bad, considering how much worse some of the other levels were! >_<